Working From Home With Your Spouse Without Conflict

The past few months have been challenging for married couples stuck at home together. Now that your company is allowing you to work from home, you may be happy that you no longer have to deal with your annoying co-workers. Well, don’t get too excited because you may be dealing with another annoying co-worker—your spouse.

Sure, you may love your spouse, but do you really want to spend the entire day with him or her by your side? Even if you’re happily married, you may find it challenging to work at home with the whole family at home, especially if you need to share an office to get work done.

While spending more time with your spouse can be beneficial, not everyone is feeling that way. Lots of people are fed up with being around their spouses 24/7. Many are even contemplating divorce, with family law attorneys expecting to be super busy when their offices open up.

So what can you do to stay married and avoid conflict? You’ve heard of social distancing—well, maybe your marriage needs some spousal distancing. The trick is to communicate and find ways to create personal space between you and your spouse. Here are some ways to keep the peace while you both work from home in these ever-changing times.

Learn to Adjust

You may keep hearing the phrase “a new normal.” It’s absolutely true—things may never go back to being the same in a lot of ways. Therefore, in order to keep life from getting too chaotic, it’s time to learn to adjust. We need to try to keep things as normal as possible, but at the same time, we need to make changes. New habits and conditions need to be developed. You may need to create a new schedule that works with your spouse’s schedule to reduce conflict.

Communicate

You and your spouse need to communicate about your feelings—and not just about work, but the coronavirus pandemic and life in general. People react differently to things, and even though you are dealing with everything just fine, your spouse may be depressed or overly anxious. You need to put these feelings out in the open and discuss them before they overflow and cause a person to explode.

Establish Ground Rules

Once you both communicate and understand that changes need to be made, it’s time to establish some ground rules. What are each person’s work hours? Where will you take calls? What if it’s a video conference? Who watches the kids (if applicable)?

Also, do get out of your pajamas. Make it seem like you are going into work mode. While you don’t need to put on a dress or a suit, you shouldn’t still be wearing bedtime apparel as you power through your workday. At the end of each day, check in with each other and relay any concerns or praise you have for your new “co-worker.”

Contact a Maryland Family Law Attorney Today

Being with your spouse 24/7 is no picnic. We all need time to ourselves, which can be hard when we’re forced to shelter in place.

Thinking of divorce due to the pandemic? Many people are, but there are steps you can take to make your marriage better and avoid divorce court. The Columbia divorce lawyers at the Law Offices of Todd K. Mohink, P.A. can help you make the right decision. Our caring staff is here to help. We have two offices to serve you. Fill out the online form or call (410) 774-5987 to schedule a free consultation.

Resource:

nytimes.com/2020/03/20/parenting/coronavirus-work-from-home-spouse.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

https://www.marylandlawhelp.com/should-you-remarry-your-ex-spouse/

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