Are you having one of those days? Is work stressing you out? Are you counting the minutes until you can go home and relax? Not so fast! If you’re feeling stressed, research indicates that you might be better off staying right where you are!
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, researchers have found that people experience less stress at work than they do at home. This was found to be true of men and women, married people and single people, and parents and non-parents. It was true across different types of occupations. It was even true of people who didn’t like their jobs!
Researchers found that when study participants were at work, they had significantly and consistently lower levels of cortisol in their systems. Cortisol is a hormone that is released in response to stress.
So why is work such a happy, relaxing place? Here are some possible reasons:
- You get paid to be at work. Money is rewarding!
- Talking to coworkers is fun.
- Everyone is relatively polite at work. Generally, you don’t have to deal with people yelling, sulking, or having temper tantrums.
- You can close your door, put on a pair of headphones, and free yourself from interruptions.
- Over time, you get better at your job, so it’s easier to do and people often praise you for doing it.
- You can listen to your coworkers’ problems and offer sympathy, but their problems don’t become your problems.
So what can you do to make your home more relaxing and rewarding? According to the article, you should try to make your home more like your workplace. They offer some suggestions as to how you can do this (such as setting boundaries with family members, getting more organized and structured, and scheduling “down time”). But to me, these suggestions seem kind of weak. Do you possibly have a better idea? Please share it in the Comments section below!
