While phubbing — that is, snubbing your partner for your smartphone at home — isn’t smart for your relationship, scientists in the U.K. say it can hurt your career as well.
Researchers out of the Universities of Bath, Aston and IESE Business School have found that spending your off-hours scrolling at home and not chatting with your partner about your jobs not only cuts off communication with him or her — which is bad in and of itself — but also disrupts the proper work-life balance.
The title of the study that was published in The Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology puts it succinctly: “The more you connect, the less you connect.”
At issue is what the researchers call “work-family support.” This could be unpacking your job challenges with your partner or discussing potential opportunities at work — called “job crafting” by the researchers.
There’s also the matter of getting some domestic support, say having your partner take more of the home duties while you unwind from a hard day or vice versa.
However, scrolling on your phone — either for work or for pleasure — cuts into that key communication, and that dries up the potential for more creative avenues at work, the researchers say.