Here's a possible reason why some of your colleagues might seem cranky - family problems. A new research shows that conflicting issues in family lead to fights with people at workplace.
Research by the University of East Anglia's Norwich Business School and Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, shows that taking family problems to work increases the risk of getting into arguments with colleagues that further leads to conflicts with partner.
"Previous studies have demonstrated that psychological and physical job demands, role ambiguity, shift work or job insecurity can cause conflicts between work colleagues," lead author of the study, Dr Ana Sanz-Vergel, said in a press release.
The study was conducted on 80 couples of average age 42. The participants were chosen from 25 different organizations. Researchers told them to complete a general socio-demographic questionnaire and a survey twice a day over a working week. Almost 70 percent of the couples had at least one child.
The participants were told to rate the level at which family conflict impacted their work life and level of arguments and rudeness they had with their colleagues as well as partners.
The team also measured the daily family conflicts of the participants at work and daily family-work conflicts at the end of the workday. Before going to bed the respondents reported their daily interpersonal conflicts at home.
"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," Dr Sanz Vergel said.
The finding was documented in British Psychological Society's Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.
