Family Worries Lead to Conflict at Work, Study Finds

First Posted: Jul 05, 2014 07:14 AM EDT
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Researchers have found that family conflicts come in the way of work, leading to conflicts among colleagues.

The new collaborated study - led by researchers at the University of East Anglia's Norwich Business School and Complutense University of Madrid, Spain - highlight the downside of family worries. They claim that worrying about family problems during work ups the risk of getting into conflicts with colleagues that further leads to arguments with partners at home.

The study lead Dr. Ana Sanz-Vergel said, "Previous studies have demonstrated that psychological and physical job demands, role ambiguity, shift work or job insecurity can cause conflicts between work colleagues."

In this study, the participants were asked to rate the level at which family conflict had affected their focus at work and level of arguments and rudeness they had with their colleagues as well as partners. The researchers wanted to examine whether worrying about family issues causes a hindrance at work and also disrupts interaction with colleagues and with partners.

To proceed with the study, a research was conducted on 80 couples whose mean age was 42 years. The participants were working in 25 various organizations. As part of the study, they were made to complete general socio-demographic questionnaire and also completed a survey twice each day over a working week. Nearly 70 percent of the couples had at least one child.

The researchers measured the daily interpersonal conflicts at work and daily family-work conflicts at the end of the workday. Before going to bed in the evening they reported their daily interpersonal conflicts at home.

Dr Sanz Vergel said: "The difficulty of focusing on work when distracted by family worries made employees irritable. This led to them reacting negatively towards colleagues instead of using more adaptive strategies, such as seeking social support or being assertive. This negativity is transferred to the home in the form of increased conflict with their partners. These findings may help us to better understand how family-work conflict affects our relationships with others both at work and at home and on a daily basis."

The finding was documented in British Psychological Society's Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 

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