Are you bringing the worst of your work life home with you? Andy Huggett offers some advice.
We spend most of our lives at work so it is inevitable you will pick up aspects of your behaviour, both good and bad, from the workplace and from your colleagues around you. Brookman Solicitors recently conducted a relationships survey* that revealed that in fact many of the individuals sampled have found their partner has adapted and brought back bad habits into the home from work.
In this article the top five bad behaviours from the survey will be revealed with simple steps and tips on how we can all overcome this and prevent annoying habits putting strain on both our work and home relationships.
An addiction to technology
In today’s digital age many of us are addicted to technology and there is an underlying expectation that employees’ should be consistently available when out of the office on either their phone, social media or emails should any issues arise, even when on holiday.
But this can have repercussions on your mental health as well as affecting relationships in the home with family which was made evident in the relationships survey, 75% of respondents attribute technology to have a negative impact on their relationship.
Employers and managers must understand the importance of work life balance and not expect too much from their workforce. They can achieve this by not contacting employees out of hours and employees can also take steps to stop a technology addiction impacting on their home life too by having dedicated “no screen time” such as during dinner times or after a certain time in the evening.
Frequent angry outbursts
If work is getting on top of you this can lead to angry outbursts either to colleagues or family members back home, this bad behaviour is certainly one you do not want to bring home from work.
Employers and managers must understand the importance of work life balance and not expect too much from their workforce.
Anger management issues are common when we are stretched at work and if you feel this may apply to you even to a small extent, you may find it beneficial to speak to your manager and explain what areas you are struggling with and causing you stress.
You could also seek external help through your local doctor or booking an appointment with a counselor as often speaking about what is causing your anger can rely help the situation as talking can be the best medicine. Alternatively, you could book some annual leave giving you something to look forward to and provide a well needed break from day to day life.
Being messy
Workplaces often have cleaners and a maintenance team that will pick up on the slack with mess in the work environment in order to keep the premises in a clean and presentable condition.
Unfortunately this can lead to bad habits which can infiltrate into our home life, becoming complacent and expecting others to pick up your mess is not a desirable habit to fall into and can considerably annoy your other half is they have to keep cleaning up after you.
Organisations can solve these bad habits trickling through the workplace by instilling a proactive and clean culture where people are expected to wash up after themselves, provide instructions on how to recycle rubbish appropriately, to name just a few actions that will prevent such a lazy workforce mentality.
Eating too many snacks
It’s all too easy to fall into bad habits at work especially if you have a desk job where you are seated for approximately eight hours a day; snacks provide a mini break during the day and are often eaten to rectify boredom at work.
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Your stomach will quickly become used to an increased intake of food so this bad habit can seep into your home life, explaining why snacking was mentioned prominently in the relationships survey as a bad habit in partners.
You can take steps to address this bad habit such as preparing healthy lunches to bring into work to make sure you are not tempted to visit the canteen or buy an unhealthy prepared lunch from a nearby shop on your lunch break.
Employers can also help by not providing snack bars or trolleys in the workplace where it is very convenient for employees to buy a unhealthy snack without leaving the office or organisations could even provide a ‘free fruit’ initiative to encourage healthy eating.
Talking too much about yourself
Having a partner that constantly comes home and all they talk about is themselves and their day at work will undoubtedly frustrate their other half which over time can cause tension in a relationship if the other person feels neglected or ignored.
Being self centered and talking too much about yourself at work will also annoy your colleagues and can land you in trouble with your manager, therefore it is crucial you nip this bad habit in the bud. Make sure to take a breath when speaking and ask other people questions to prevent talking too much about yourself.
If an employer notices a particular employee talking too much in the workplace, especially about themselves and not related to work, a quiet sensitive word with the individual may do the trick as they may not have even noticed they were doing this.
About the author
Andy Huggett is marketing manager at Execute Marketing.
*The online survey was conducted with 1006 married individuals, based in the US, during April 2018. The couples were asked 10 questions relating to their marriage, relationship challenges, solutions and the role that media, technology and social media plays in relationship breakdown. For more information visit www.brookman.co.uk.
