Why Companies Want Staffers With Happy Spouses

Posted on January 22, 2015

Todd Pedersen, chief executive of home-automation company Vivint Inc., says there's a connection between the state of his employees' relationships and their productivity levels.

"When my wife's sad, I am not coming to work with a bounce in my step," he says.

Vivint and a handful of other companies have been launching special clubs and planning events — part professional development, part party –to acquaint employees' husbands and wives with the work that consumes their partners' days. Gatherings give spouses space to vent, and, companies hope, help them understand the next time their partner is stuck late at the office or leaving town on a last-minute business trip.

An unhappy partner can make the other partner less effective on the job, research findings suggest. A study published in the October issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family found that men are happier with their lives when their wives are satisfied with the state of their union, regardless of the husbands' feelings about the marriage. And a recent study in Psychological Science showed that a spouse's personality can influence his or her partner's performance at work.

Click on the link below to read the full article

Employees whose spouses are conscientious types who tend be organized rule-followers were more likely to perform better at work, win promotions and raises and be happy with their jobs, according to the study’s author, Joshua Jackson, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis.


Category(s):Relationships & Marriage, Workplace Issues

Source material from Wall Street Journal