A major ingredient to taking the pain out of a stressful day at work is a supportive partner at home, a new study has confirmed.

It may not seem like a groundbreaking conclusion but the study, from Florida State University, is the first to quantify the effects that a sympathetic ear can have at home and at work.

Professor Wayne Hochwarter, author of the study, found that highly stressed employees had a 25 percent higher level of concentration levels if they had a harmonious home life.

They were also 33 percent more likely to have positive relationships with colleagues, and a 20 percent higher level of job satisfaction.

Previous studies have linked work-related stress to a range of mental and physical illnesses, such as depression and obesity.

But this study shows how stress can be a vicious circle - adversely affecting the way employees perform at work, which can lead to even more workplace stress.

Professor Hochwarter said the mental and physical wellbeing of employees were at risk if they came to work still stressed from the day before.

He said: 'When you're still angry or upset from yesterday's stress, your workday will likely go in only one direction - down.'

And there were obvious benefits at home as well. Professor Hochwarter's paper said employees with strong home support were 25 percent less likely to suffer from after-work fatigue.

Having an awareness of a partner's daily work demands - such as deadlines, a lack of adequate resources and bad bosses - could ensure that couples always communicated, and a partner could see when their loved one was underplaying or exaggerating a problem.

The ability to bring a partner back to the middle - building them up when they feel down in the dumps, or talking them down when they are overly agitated - also played a crucial role.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)