Working with your spouse is not as uncommon as many people think. It can be an exciting endeavor. Spending a great deal of time together, collaborating on projects outside of the home, and engaging in a shared professional pursuit can serve to bond people. At the same time, if you’re not careful, working with your spouse can also lead to stickier situations. The key is to strive for that perfect balance between your working life and your relationship at home.
Did you know that spouses who work together learn to disagree more productively? And couples who work together also tend to have a deeper appreciation for the other person. This could be because they are more mutually supportive of one another’s career endeavors. On the flip side, couples who work together could potentially experience more frustration with the other person as working issues can spill over into “real-life” problems. So how do you avoid this? How do partners who work together maintain a harmonious relationship?
In this article, we take a look at some tips for working with your spouse and ensuring that it is, for the most part, a pleasant experience.
Try Not to Bring Your Work Home
This is just human nature. Work constitutes a significant part of our day; it’s a part of who we are. So bringing our work home with us is natural for many people. However, if you work with your spouse, bringing that work home, or bringing too much work home, can start to blur that work/life separation. Be conscientious about having a working relationship, and then, once you do come home, have that romantic partnership as well.
Be Strategic About Date Nights
Again, it comes back to the separation between your work and home life. It is essential to schedule time for the two of you apart from working matters and professional endeavors. It would be best to focus on who you are as a couple.
Try and Separate Your Workstations
Depending on the nature of your work and where you work, this might not be feasible. However, if you can separate your workstations to some degree within the context of your workday, this can be healthy for your relationship. Also, try and do the same thing at your home. You don’t want to work right on top of one another or be distracted by each other. You want to create that balance.
Really Make an Effort to Listen to Your Partner
Listening is not practiced the way it should be many times. If you are engaged in a heated debate or argument, taking the time to step back and listen to your spouse can be very helpful. Shouting matches go nowhere. This is true whether you’re working with your spouse or not.
Focus on Your Individuality
Maintaining that individuality is so essential for a healthy relationship. When you work together and live together, your uniqueness and individuality could become lost. You will do a great deal together, so take some time to do things separately as well. It could be as simple as walking to work on your own one day if that is a possibility.
Put the Marriage First
If working with your spouse is creating a tense or, in some way, a negative situation within your marriage, then it may be time to rethink things. If you are invested in the union, then the marriage should come first. Are there accommodations you can make? Can one of you be transferred to a different office? Could one of you potentially work from home part of the time? You may have to get creative here with your solution, but you want to prioritize your partnership again.
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