This is the weekly Careers newsletter.
Radhika Panjwani is a freelance writer from Toronto.
Your spouse, partner or significant other may be massively responsible for whether you enjoy a successful career and receive promotions and raises, show a pair of studies.
When researchers at Washington University in St. Louis scrutinized whether the personality traits of participants’ spouses had any co-relation to job satisfaction, income and their likelihood of being promoted, they found for both men and women that their partner’s conscientiousness was an important indicator of how successful they would be in the workplace.
The five-year study by Joshua Jackson, a professor of psychology and brain sciences, and Brittany Solomon, an assistant professor, analyzed responses of participants, all of whom took a series of psychological tests and were assessed on five broad measures of personality – openness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism and conscientiousness.
“Our study shows that it is not only your own personality that influences the experiences that lead to greater occupational success, but that your spouse’s personality matters too,” Mr. Jackson said in a statement. “The experiences responsible for this association are not likely isolated events where the spouse convinces you to ask for a raise or promotion, instead, a spouse’s personality influences many daily factors that sum up and accumulate across time to afford one the many actions necessary to receive a promotion or a raise.”
As part of the study, 5,000 heterosexual married people – approximately 75 per cent of whom were in dual-income households – shared data on how they jointly tackled household chores, lifestyle decisions and marital satisfaction. The respondents also communicated career triumphs, if any, as measured by job satisfaction, wages over time and promotions.
The results show those with a more conscientious spouse are promoted more often and receive higher wages.
The researchers revealed three ways in which the conscientious spouses help their partners:
First, conscientious spouses are also hard-working and efficient and likely take on some chores and tasks around the house which allows their partner to use that time to work more. Second, workers likely mimicked traits such as diligence and reliability their conscientious spouses had in spades. Third, having a conscientious spouse means it’s more likely the working spouse’s personal life is running smoothly and stress-free, leading to a more balanced work-life equilibrium.
When you’re in a relationship, you’re no longer just two individuals; you’re this entity,” Ms. Solomon said. The more solid the entity, the greater your advantage.
Love-work-life balance
It was while watching an episode of the popular TV show House of Cards that Dana Unger, an associate professor at The Arctic University of Norway, hit upon the idea to study how romantic relationships help or prevent an individual from attaining their career goals.
House of Cards, an original BBC series, later adapted for an American audience, features a power couple whose political ambitions involve winning an election.
Ms. Unger along with Professors Angelika Kornblum and Gudela Grote decided to test their hypothesis through two online surveys in Germany with prospective federal and provincial political candidates. They sent the survey three months before elections and questioned respondents on the duration, closeness of their romantic relationships as well as shared career goals.
“We found the closeness of the relationship and not its duration, to be a relevant factor for an individual’s career goal attainment,” said Ms. Unger. “The closer a relationship, the higher the chance that both partners share the same career goal. Partners who have the same career goals are also likely to pool resources, for example, time, money, energy, which makes attaining one’s career goal more likely.”
The researchers’ findings also reveal when there’s a conflict in the career goals between romantic partners, it damages how they will likely share the resources, which in turn, negatively affects the outcome.
Even though their research was primarily focused on politicians, the results are just as relevant to everyone working in offices, Ms. Unger, an organizational psychologist, said.
Matchmaking for success
Both studies suggest there are implications to one’s career when choosing a romantic partner.
When looking for a compatible partner, most people seek mates who score high on agreeableness and low on narcissism. So, it may serve people equally well to look for conscientious personalities as well, the Washington University study notes.
“There is research on crossover of psychological states that shows if we have a partner who scores high on neuroticism [people who are generally negative], their negative mood crosses over to the partner who may then end-up bringing it to work,” Ms. Unger said. “Being in a negative mood is not always bad because we tend to scrutinize information more when we are in a negative mood, but a bad mood can be a hindering factor, particularly for service workers.”
What I’m reading around the web
- This story in Adweek says TikTok’s losing its clout as follower growth on the social media platform appears to be lagging. There are less viral hits and the days of gaining 10 million followers in a week may be over.
- According to this Techcrunch article, WordPress has launched an AI assistant. Users can now add a block that will generate content, including structured lists and tables within a blog post.
- Terrified of small talk? Ask questions. This CNBC story says a Harvard University study shows people felt more warmly toward those who asked a lot of questions. Other strategies include squelching anxiety and in case you are face-to-face with a well-known person, be brief.
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