Calico Rudasil is a feature columnist for Sssh.com, the award-winning porn site for women & couples. With over 18 years’ experience under her belt, writing about and for the adult entertainment industry, Calico qualifies as something of a Web Porn Dinosaur; similar to a tyrannosaurus, only with far more attractive arms and a less pronounced overbite.
Back in the days before I worked from home, I worked in an office that was a short commute from home – 15 minutes most days, about 10 more when traffic was heavy.
I’ve often wondered if the short drive – and corresponding lack of time to recalibrate my emotional state from “God, work sucks” to “Yay I’m home!” – was part of why my husband could gauge what sort of day I’d had at work so easily and quickly upon my arrival home. Sometimes, I wouldn’t even have said a word yet and he’d ask: “Rough day at work?”
I like to think I did a pretty good job of putting work out of my mind by later the same evening, though. By the time we’d finished eating dinner, unless he asked me about work again, it was out of sight/out of mind. And if it wasn’t, I’d do my best to pretend work wasn’t on my mind, just to spare my spouse the burden of the same work-related bullshit that was weighing me down.
One thing I tried to never do was to let work-related stress mess with our sex life. To the contrary, sex was a great way to put my focus on something good and positive – and to quickly forget whatever work-crap it was that had stressed me out in the first place.
Was the Sales Report That Good, or Did You Get Laid Over Lunch?
I’d never given much thought to how my life at home affected my attitude at work – mostly because I was reasonably happy with my life at home, but also because nobody had ever come up with an angle on the question which intrigued me.
Until now, that is.
A recently published paper by academics from Oregon State, Washington and Oregon universities explores the question of how a person’s sex life impacts their job performance, satisfaction with their job and the like. The title of the article nicely sums up its focus: “From the Bedroom to the Office: Workplace Spillover Effects of Sexual Activity at Home.”
“Sexual behavior represents relatively common and mundane home-life behavior, with demonstrated impact on both mood and general physical and psychological well-being,” the abstract states.
Mundane? Man, I’m one sentence into this thing and already I’m feeling sorry for its authors!
A Recently-Laid Worker is a Happy Worker (Duh.)
“Integrating emergent research on sex and mood with theory on work-life enrichment, we propose a novel model demonstrating the effects of sexual behavior at home on next-day job satisfaction and job engagement as a function of positive affect.”
OK, then. I’m hoping this translates into something significantly less boring than it sounds. (Or less mundane, at least.)
“Using a 2-week daily diary study of married, employed adults, we found that (a) when employees engaged in sex at home, they reported increased positive affect at work the following day, independent of the effects of marital satisfaction; (b) sex at home increased both daily job satisfaction and daily job engagement as a function of increased positive affect; and (c) daily work-to-family strain-based conflict significantly reduced the likelihood of engaging in sex at home that evening.”
That all sounds about right to me. I’d certainly say a recently-pleasured Calico is more likely to be a happy, productive worker than a Calico who hasn’t experienced the feel-good chemicals that circulate in her brain, post-sex.
Empirical Research Needed?
Here’s what I wonder: Is the same thing true in reverse? I don’t mean whether someone who is engaged and productive at work is more likely to have sex when they go home at night – the researchers’ article already addresses that question. I mean if I have sex at work, am I more likely to have a chipper and positive attitude when I get home?
Hmmm. There’s probably something trickier about that question than the ones the researchers pondered, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I’ll try asking my husband, see what he thinks.
Me: Hey honey, do you think, back when I had my office job, I’d have come home happier in the evening if I’d had sex at work during the day?
Him (Looking skeptical): Was there anyone in that office you would have wanted to have sex with?
Me: Oh, right… Good point.
Oh well. Guess I’ll have leave that question to the academics.
Calico Rudasil is a Sssh.com (@ssshforwomen) columnist and Sssh will be on Peeperz for fun times again in the near future, meanwhile why not check us out:
