Work relationships affect your health, study says
By mbrooks on June 7, 2019
By Matthew Brooks
On your commute to work, do you look forward to seeing the people you work with?
If so, chances are you are in good health.
A good peer support system can be a benefit to your health, according to the American Psychological Association.
A study published in the APA journal Health Psychology says that people with a good peer support system – or, friends – live longer than people who lack that support system.
The study tracked medical records for a period of twenty years, from 1988 to 2008.
Researchers found that good work relationships among co-workers mattered the most.
For the sake of your mortality, you don’t need to get along that well with your boss. Researchers found that a good connection with supervisors had no effect on a worker’s mortality.
Having friends at work is good for your health, but the converse is also true. Having bad relationships adds to your stress levels, another study found.
The study shows that workers who have low social support at work were almost two-and-a-half times to die during the 20-year period, according to researcher Dr. Sharon Toker.
The other study reported that 62% of people say that their co-workers cause more stress than their boss.
The study originated in the Department of Organizational Behavior at Tel Aviv University’s Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration.
