Work 'no escape from unhappy home'

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 28-11-2011

’Workaholism’ hardly ever compensates for an unhappy home life, a study claims.

There is a link between job and life satisfaction - particularly among the main household earners - but this does not extend to those trying to use work to make up for an unhappy home life, concluded the Kingston University’s Business School study.

The study, published in the British Journal of Management, investigated the notion of "compensatory rewards" through work with people feeling gloomy about their home life.

"Happiness at home affects your job and vice versa," said report co-author Professor Yannis Georgellis.

"Although there is a clear spill-over effect from one area of life to the other, there is no evidence that people who are very unhappy at home will feel compensated by work in any way."

Copyright Press Association 2011