The point is, working with your significant other is a tricky business and on the surface level it just doesn’t seem like a good idea. Yet, so many people work with their partners. It’s probably because we all spend so much time at work and it’s where we meet our husbands and wives. But it’s not like working with any other colleagues, and there’s a definite art to working in harmony. Like how do you manage telling each other what to do? Who’s really the boss? What about disagreements in the workplace? There’s a ton of questions, and it’s not always cut and dry. In fact, it almost never is.
Work is only as strong as home
Which is to say that your working relationship will thrive if your marriage is strong. No matter how much you promise yourself that you won’t let your marriage come into the work place, it inevitably will, especially if you’re having disagreements. Put the work into creating a strong personal relationship, and your working relationship will mirror that.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Put work into creating a strong personal relationship & your working relationship will show it.” quote=”Put work into creating a strong personal relationship & your working relationship will show it.”]
You don’t have to do everything together
When you’re living together and working together, you can get lost in one another and think you have to do everything together. That’s not true at all, and maintaining separate spaces is a great way to keep your relationship healthy. For example, you don’t have to travel to work together. Whether it’s driving, public transport, or walking, making the journey separately gives you both time to yourself before your day kicks in and gears up. It’s also important to create social calendars that get you out of each other’s hair.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Maintaining separate spaces is a great way to keep your relationship healthy.” quote=”Maintaining separate spaces is a great way to keep your relationship healthy.”]
Divide and conquer
You both have individual strengths, and after all, opposites attract. Play to those strengths in the workplace and let one another do the things you’re both respectively good at. Understand that it’s not your strength, and it will keep meddling to a minimum and improve the relationship at work.
Set time aside
This will be one of the most important elements that will keep you working in harmony. Set time aside for both personal and professional issues and create the spaces you can resolve them. If you’re struggling with something at work, make sure that you have time set aside to really go over it and resolve it, instead of letting it fester in silence. Your home time should not be the time you do this, so make sure you do it during working hours.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Set time aside for both personal & professional issues & create the spaces you can resolve them.” quote=”Set time aside for both personal & professional issues & create the spaces you can resolve them.”]
Similarly, ensure you set aside personal time where work is off the table, and it’s just you guys on date nights, trips, or nights in.
It’s not easy—it never is, but it is doable and can be achieved in happiness. It can be more peace and less war.