Nancy Rothbard, a managment professor at the Wharton School of Business, is researching on the effects of moods and personal issues in the work place.

The researchers found that both positive and negative moods affect employee productivity, but that positive moods are more potent. Most importantly, they discovered, the mood you bring with you to work has a stronger effect on the day’s mood — and on work performance — than mood changes caused by events in the workplace. This finding, according to Rothbard, suggests that a business’s performance might be enhanced by efforts to help employees cope with mood-affecting influences in their private lives — including advising employees on how to best handle commuting hassles or offering counseling for family problems.