Long Work Hours Suck The Life Out Of Your Marriage And Destroy Your Sex Life

Under the "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" category is this new study that found that work hours in excess of seventy per week wreck havok on your sex life and your marriage. Executives tend to work those kinds of hours, so they should take heed.

Apparently, these long working hours in executive positions is called "the extreme job". I certainly would not like to work like that. What kind of life would that be?

People with extreme jobs don't hate their jobs. In fact, the opposite is the case. They love their jobs. They brag about their earnings, their long hours, their work, and all the travel they have to do. The problem is that their families are suffering. Their sexual relationship with their spouses is in the toilet.

Harvard Business Review published the study. Those who work in extreme jobs consider a ten-hour work week a part-time job. What the hell kind of nonsense is that? It's not new, though. Work hours in general are longer now than they were decades ago. The forty hour work week is getting to be a thing of the past. Plus, there is little job security. I just read that DuPont has laid off a bunch of workers - just before Christmas. What a great present. I also suspect that those who work in extreme jobs aren't pulling in the kinds of benefits that jobholders have had in decades past. They don't take vacations or days off. They even go to work on days that they normally have off. These kinds of jobs also involve travel and "evening entertainment", which was not identified. As far as I know, that could be anything from mandatory meetings at restaurants to after-work seminars. If anyone reading this post can identify what is meant by "evening entertainment", please post in comments.

The article I link to described problems men and women in extreme jobs have, saying that "nearly half of men and women who took part in the international research project said their jobs "interfere with having a strong relationship with my spouse/partner." So much time is spent on the job that relationships with spouses and children suffer. This includes the sexual relationship. These extreme job workers are too tired for sex. That's not a good thing.

I'd rather see people scale back their working hours and enjoy their lives, but many jobs these days require longer hours and less time with families. I've always known that the workplace had never been family-friendly, but it seems to be getting worse.

Anyone reading in an extreme job, or just have ridiculous working hours? Do you enjoy your job? How is your family life faring? Care to discuss the issue in comments?