Study: Working Long Hours Will Not Ruin Your Love Life

With the ever-changing working world that no longer abides strictly by a 9-5 schedule and includes enough user-friendly technology to turn any place into an office, it’s become easier to work super long hours and ignore your better half.

However, according to researchers from The Tavistock Institute, pulling long hours is not as detrimental to romantic relationships as we think.

After interviewing 285 couples, it was discovered those affected by long workdays compensate for moments lost with their partner by making the most of free time spent together. That said, career-driven participants in this study were not naïve, however, accepting the fact that working long days does not allow them to have everything they want in their personal lives.

Reads an excerpt from the study, which was published in the Human Relations journal: “There was no negative association between working time and relationship satisfaction…Our results challenge the common-sense assumption about a negative association between working time and relationship outcomes.”

Naturally, 285 couples is a real small sample size, especially considering the global population is above the seven billion mark. That, and no two dual-career relationships are alike: issues are bound to arise because of the juggling required. Thus, saying there is “no negative association between working time and relationship satisfaction,” may be a bit of a stretch.

Perhaps staying in tune with the unique ebbs and flows of your situation and making sure that whatever you’re doing makes you – as well as your partner – a pair of happy, fulfilled people, is the best way to go.

-Adam Grant