A new study has found that supportive co-workers improve our relationships at home and supportive partners make us more productive at work, according to research by Yasin Focanin, Jakob Stollberger and Mireia Las Heras of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.
How, exactly, does this work?
The study found that someone who benefits from a positive working environment with supportive colleagues is likely to pass on those benefits to their partner at home. This might mean they encourage them to open up about stresses, seek to resolve issues, or make improvements to how they juggle work and family life arrangements.
In the other direction, a loving relationship at home is likely to translate into greater dedication and creativity in the workplace.
The researchers made these discoveries by studying the everyday experiences of 260 dual-income heterosexual couples in the U.S. over a period of six weeks to understand how their home lives and work lives affected each other. The main goal of the research was to discover where people looked for support, and whether or not they found it.
Based on the study, it might be time to reevaluate your relationship with your colleagues. Rather than seeing them simply as people who share your workspace, think of them as people who have a significant impact on your home life, too. (And you on theirs.) This is true whether you share a tightly spaced office or engage with them mostly online.
And while employers shouldn’t meddle with their personal lives, they may be able to contribute to the quality of relationships at home by putting policies and procedures in place to minimize work-family conflict. This may include limiting excessive working hours and reducing expectations of responding to messages outside of work. They should also be aware that if colleagues get on well, everyone benefits — at work and at home.