When workplace stress spills over into your personal life, your family's well-being can also suffer, new evidence suggests.
A recent conference on work, stress and health included research on family-supportive workplaces and the influence of supervisors – good or bad – on employee health.
"Survey results vary, but you can find that large numbers of individuals report that work is the biggest source of stress in their life," said Michael Ford, an assistant professor of psychology at Albany-State University of New York.
"At the same time, everybody has a life outside of work," Ford said. "So we need to continue to understand how this affects the psychological and physical well-being of the population as well. I think it's something that a lot of people can relate to."
"With high levels of job stress and work-life stress, we see mental health problems," adds Leslie Hammer, director of the Center for Work – Family Stress, Safety and Health. "We see increased levels of depressive symptoms. We also see increased levels of negative health outcomes. Cardiovascular disease has been a clear link with job strain. We see obesity problems. We see general physical health complaints."
Positive health behaviors can fall by the wayside, she added.
"When people are stressed at work, when their supervisors are really not supportive around work-life issues, we are seeing more negative health behaviors in the sense of poor food choices, lower levels of exercise, poor sleep hygiene," Hammer said.
Work stress takes a toll on relationships as well.
"Marriage quality is definitely impacted," Hammer said. "That relationship quality goes down. When one experiences negative stress/strain, work-life stress, that ends up crossing over to their partner or spouse or children, and it results in similar stress and strain among those family members."
In Ford's study, he found that people in supportive work environments tend, in turn, to be more supportive of their spouses.