Why Companies Want Staffers With Happy Spouses

The Wall Street Journal:

Happy wife, happy life – even at the office?

Todd Pedersen, chief executive of home-automation company Vivint Inc., says there’s a connection between the state of his employees’ relationships and their productivity levels.

“When my wife’s sad, I am not coming to work with a bounce in my step,” he says.

Vivint and a handful of other companies have been launching special clubs and planning events — part professional development, part party –to acquaint employees’ husbands and wives with the work that consumes their partners’ days. Gatherings give spouses space to vent, and, companies hope, help them understand the next time their partner is stuck late at the office or leaving town on a last-minute business trip.

An unhappy partner can make the other partner less effective on the job, research findings suggest. A study published in the October issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family found that men are happier with their lives when their wives are satisfied with the state of their union, regardless of the husbands’ feelings about the marriage. And a recent study in Psychological Science showed that a spouse’s personality can influence his or her partner’s performance at work.

Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal