Your Family Will Stress You Out More Than Your Job Will

So did you load up the car or the camper and hit the highway with the family over the Memorial Day weekend? How was it? Let me guess, several backseat fights and seemingly a couple hundred "are we there yet's." That's what I thought.

You're probably glad to be home again, and dare I say back to work today?

There's a study out of Penn State University that says people actually get more stressed out spending time with their family than they do working. As twisted as this may sound, work is kind of like stress relief compared to being home with the entire family.

Researchers tested people's cortisol levels while at home and at work. Your cortisol levels by the way are one of the most accurate ways to measure stress. Oddly enough, the average persons stress was noticeably lower at work, compared to being at home.

This was especially true for women. Which makes sense, I mean how many screaming kids are typically hanging around the office. Chances are not many, unless you're running a daycare.

So what can we learn from this? Mostly it's important to have a good work-life balance, but maybe not the way you typically think. Going to work might actually be better for you than originally thought. Perhaps it can help you de-stress so you can enjoy being home even more.

Source: Contemporary Families