Be aware that your job may be undermining your exercise motivation, and find ways to be more active every day.

Workplace doldrums can drain your energy at home, too, according to new research.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—When we talk about "taking our jobs home with us," we typically mean the stress associated with unwieldy workloads, cantankerous co-workers, looming deadlines, and the like. But a new study just published in the journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine illustrates that workers often bring home an unhealthy "passivity" they may not even realize they've absorbed as part of their company's workforce. The result: inactivity and diminished exercise motivation.

THE DETAILS: Researchers from University College London looked at more than 6,000 British civil servants ranging in age from 35 to 55 over five years, measuring at three intervals both how passive their jobs were and how physically active the workers were outside of work. "Passive" jobs were defined as jobs in which the worker has little stress, but also very little control, meaning that the jobs were psychologically unmotivating and not meaningful, though not necessarily sedentary.

The analysis found that men who worked in passive jobs at all three time points were fully 16 percent more likely to be physically inactive outside of work, compared to men who had never worked a passive job. The decreased exercise motivation wasn't seen for women, though; men seem most prone to the phenomenon. "It is likely that the same pattern occurs among women. However, our finding are consistent with prior studies showing that working conditions seemed to affect men’s health more," says lead study author David Gimeno, PhD, who is an honorary senior research associate at University College London and also an associate professor of occupational health at the University of Texas School of Public Health in San Antonio.