Stress and fatigue, not roving eye, hurt relationships

argumentMost people working in the media and marketing industry will recognise the struggles of trying to hold down a long-term relationship, but it is workplace stress and fatigue, not – as some may suspect – over-friendly colleagues, that are the biggest hurdles to mount.

So says a survey of 1,124 people working across a range of different industry sectors, carried out by property firm Savoy Stewart, designed to determine just how many would consider quitting their job to save their relationship.

The bad news for anyone who is hooked up with a media and marketing professional is that the industry is firmly in the top five sectors that have a negative effect on workers’ relationships. However, it could be worse, those going out with leisure (50%) and retail (40%) workers are in a much worse position than media (37.5%), although hospitality (33.3%) and construction (20%) staff do fare slightly better.

Sadly, if you want a happy home life, you will need to retrain; the top five sectors that have a positive effect on workers’ relationships are education (66%), finance (57.14%), public sector (40%), healthcare (33.3%) and IT (33.3%).

When it comes to the biggest hindrances on relationships, stress (25%) came out on top, followed by being too tired after work (21%), prioritising work over a partner (13%) and working away (7%).

Inevitably, the office affair does raise its ugly head; across the whole survey, 2.5% admit that cheating with a colleague had hit their personal relationship – although there is no sector breakdown.

When asked, would you quit your job to save your relationship, however, well over half said no (54%), with the rest (46%) saying they would.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their often-belligerent nature, IT workers were found to be the most cold-hearted, with two-thirds (66.67%) saying they would never quit their job to save a relationship.

Construction was the most romantic sector, with three-quarters (75%) prepared to quit their job to save their relationships, however, they were also the most likely to be single (60%).

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