Using mobile devices at home for work negatively affects family life reveals a new study

If there's one device that has truly transformed our lives in the last few years, it's the smartphone. While smartphones are enormously useful, but sometimes their allure can prove too strong. We feel compelled to respond to them most of the times.

Having said that, a new study has warned not to use smartphones at home all the time as it might spoil intimacy with your partner and affect your professional life too. Further, researchers have stated that using a mobile device at home for work purposes has negative implications for the employee's work life and also on the spouse.

"There is plenty of research on technology and how it affects employees. We wanted to see if this technology-use" carried back home would affect the spouse negatively, said co-author of the study, Wayne Crawford, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.

For the study, published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, researchers surveyed 344 married couples. All the participants were full-time workers and used mobile devices or tablets at home for their work purposes.

The survey results showed that use of a mobile device during family time resulted in lower job satisfaction and lower job performance.

"It's really no surprise that conflict was created when a spouse is using a mobile device at home. They are sometimes engaging in work activities during family time. What that ultimately leads to, though, is trouble at work for both spouses," the researcher said.

"So, whether companies care or don't about employees being plugged in, those firms need to know that the relationship tension created by their interaction with their employees during non-work hours ultimately leads to work-life trouble," the researcher added.

Abdul Rasheed, chair of the Department of Management, said Crawford's work is illuminating for businesses.

"That extra time spent on mobile devices after hours might not be worth it if the grief it causes results in productivity losses once the conflict is carried back to work," Rasheed said. "Businesses have to think about accomplishing tasks more efficiently while people are at work."

While there are plenty of studies that delve deep into our relationships with our smartphone an interesting study by Galaxy Research has also stated that we take over 50 million selfies per week and also check our phones more than 60 times a day each.

Inputs from IANS