Workaholics, rejoice: long hours might not ruin your relationship, after all.
A new study published in scientific journal Human Relations bucks conventional wisdom that love suffers from long working hours — but only if you work in academia.
Researcher Dana Zunger, who has done other research on work-life balance, and her team at ETH Zurich zeroed in on 285 couples, most of whom worked in academia. Researchers focused on the academia because individuals in that field tended to work more and had more discretion over their hours than those in other fields. Respondents worked an average of 44 hours a week, despite only being contracted to work 35.
The couples completed surveys that measured their satisfaction in their relationship and how they chose to spend their time at different times across six months.
Zunger and her team found that individuals who worked longer hours didn't suffer in the love department: the data shows no negative association between relationship satisfaction and hours worked.
In fact, people who worked more accepted that they wouldn't be able to achieve a perfect work-life balance, and thus tended to have fewer — and more attainable goals — for their relationship. Further, researchers found that while couples who worked more saw each other less, they made the most out of the time they did spend together.
The results, however, aren't perfect or sweeping. Because the study focused primarily on academia, which follows a somewhat predictable school schedule, the results aren't applicable to those who work in other fields. And many of the members of the couples surveyed both worked in the same field, suggesting that partners might have a better understanding of the workplace demands that their partner faced.
So academics: you can teach that extra class or do more research without fretting about straining your relationship. Everyone else: the jury's still out on whether your love life will go up in flames if you take that extra shift.