“Employers need a bit of shaking up,” the Labour peer Lady Bakwell stated recently, urging British firms to embrace flexible working. Encouraging staff to undertake a part-time degree alongside work commitments improves promotion prospects, innovation and skill sets, she argued.

In similar fashion, a government-backed report has found that a rise in working women – in part facilitated by a more flexible approach to working – could see GDP growth climb. If women and men were equally represented in the workforce GDP could be as much as 10% higher, the report found.

The benefits of flexible working are clear to many and include lowering staff churn, by addressing all workplace preference, and giving extra responsibility to induce a stronger work ethic. Unless of course you are Marissa Meyer. Swimming against the tidal flow, the Yahoo! CEO recently imposed a ban on flexible working. Though leaked memorandums suggest that the ban was less draconian and more stones in a washing machine…

When developing ideas and products, entrepreneurs across the globe resort to the stones in the washing machine analogy, supposedly drawn by Steve Jobs. When entered into the drum, stones are jagged and different. Enough turns in the machine, and they rub against one another, chipping away and becoming smooth and cohesive. And this is what the Yahoo! head wants.

The best ideas, she says, often come out of chats at the water cooler, impromptu brainstorms in the kitchen, collective development of a rough and ready concept. And though VOIP technology and online meetings may enable face-to-face discussion, they lack one crucial element: spontaneity.

The light-bulb moment is a flash, exciting in its brevity and glare. And when experienced collectively it is less energy-saving, more electrifying. Though proponents of flexible working may be armed with an arsenal of benefits – for the economy of the business and the country – they run the risk of isolating innovation and weakening it in solitude.