Would you ever work with your Spouse?

[Lilacs4Me]

My husband's company has a position open that would be a good fit for me.

Benefits:

1. The money - I will be looking at ~$15-$20K/year pay increase.
2. The ability to move forward in the company, which is something I don't have in my own company unless I want to move to Atlanta.
3. Good company culture, from what I know
4. DH knows the hiring manager and thinks I would do well there.
5. The workload will be challenging but my current workload is insane anyway, and from what DH knows about the position, they don't work 60 hours a week like I often do now
6. I will be back in a structured corporate office again, instead of a bedroom-converted-to-office in my house
7. I would work in the same office as my husband, but not in the same department or physical area of the office. We could carpool on the days we are both commuting, and have lunch together sometimes.
8. The office is large, about 400 employees, and his area is in a different part of the building than mine would be, so it's not like we would be staring at each other all day.
9. Our health insurance costs would go down since we would all be able to be on the same health plan again, instead of him on one, and me/kids on mine.

Drawbacks:

1. His office is an hour away. There is some flexibility to the schedule as far as DH knows, and they work from home a day or two a week. I currently work from home 4 days a week, and go into an office an hour away in the other direction one day a week.
2. Scrambling to make sure my DD gets to school and home every day from school. She will get her license next June, but for this school year we will have to find her a way to get to school and back, at least the few times a week that DH and I will both be in the office since our district doesn't offer bussing. 10 months from now, she will be able to drive herself and DS13 to school, etc, so it will be much easier.
3. Losing the flexibility I have by being a full-time remote employee. Except for Wednesdays, I pretty much can schedule appts, etc whenever I want. I don't miss out on my kids' early afternoon sports games, and I can take them to the orthodontist and get them back to school, and get back online at home, within an hour. With the new job, this will be harder to manage.
4. I would work with my husband! Yikes! I have always been very good at separating my personal life from my professional life. I tend to work quietly and efficiently and rarely take lunches. DH loves his lunch breaks. I'm not sure I want a lunch partner EVERY day.....

Would you work with your spouse? (barring the obvious, like qualifications, etc)

 

[soccerdad72]

Probably not, no.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I worked with my spouse, when we were dating & newly married. We also worked together for 4 years recently, until I became physically unable to work. The first time we pretty much just spent breaks & lunch together. The second time we were literally together 24/7, except when DH ran errors, while I was doing housework. We loved.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

Not only no but heck no, no amount of money would be enough for me to work for my husband love him as a person most of the time but if I had to work with someone with his personality I would be looking for another job very quickly

 

[jsmith]

I currently work with my spouse. We have worked for the same government contract since 2012. For the first three years we were in two separate locations in close proximity to one another. Now his desk is just around the corner from mine. We maintain a professional relationship in the office-customers and new employees often have to ask if we ate "related" because we have the same very common last name. I am a manager of a section other than the one he works in and even though we interact there is no chance one of us will ever wind up reporting to the other. We do sometimes go home for lunch together and we drive in together 3 or 4 days a week-not really a commute since its 10 to 12 minutes from home to work. I have been here about 15 years and I admit I was hesitant when he first decided to join the team more because of having both of our incomes reliant on one contract but it has worked out well although I don't imagine it would for everyone. Our one hard and fast rule is that we leave work at work as much as possible. We discuss work related issues on the ride home but the minute the car goes in the garage that stops. I do occasionally get called in in the middle of the night to deal with issues but, just like any other job, I get up, come in and do what I have to do and go home and try not to wake him up while I am doing it.

 

[AndreaDM]

Probably as long as neither one of us was the other's superior, and not in the same physical space all day which it sounds like you wouldn't be.

As for the commute, see my post lol! I get the conundrum, there are pros and cons to both situations. That is a nice raise though and it doesn't sound like the commute would cost you more since your DH is already driving there.

 

[gillep]

No. I refused to even take classes with my husband when we were in College, I certainly would not want to work with him in a professional setting. For us, I feel like those parts of our lives are best separate even though there is really nothing specific about him or his personality that I would have an issue working with, I just don't think it would add to, or be beneficial to our marriage.

 

[morgan98]

No, I don't think I would. I think having a separate place with your own identity is good. Even if you are not in the same department there will be overlap, people will know, etc. Things can get complicated should one of you ever have conflicts with supervisors, etc.

Also, the flexibility you currently have sounds like something you like. Don't underestimate the impact of commuting 2 hours each day.

However, I do see that the additional $ and upward mobility may be enticing.

 

[jdb in AZ]

As long as one of you doesn't supervise the other, I'd go for it. The extra $$$$$ is nice, as well as the savings on insurance.

 

[bethbuchall]

I would have no problem working with my husband, but I would make sure we laid down a few ground rules at the start (the lunch thing, for example).

The loss of flexibility and commute might put me off, but working with my husband definitely would not.

 

[RangerPooh]

DH and I work best apart. We have had the same employer but were always in different departments.

 

[ImDMous]

I think we could do it. We went to college together in the same major, took most of our classes together, have done online classes together to learn new skills related to work, etc. We usually work pretty well together. It sounds like you probably wouldn't really see each other while actually working.

 

[easyas123]

Almost my entire working life I've worked with my brothers. My husband- after deliberately avoiding working with the family for 24 years - joined our Company a little over a year ago. He does his thing & I do mine. When I have to leave the office (or he does) we just go to whatever jobsite we need to go to and that is that. If he's around & I'm around at lunch time sometimes we eat together, sometimes one of us goes home....we actually share a suite of offices as well. It has surprisingly worked out just fine! BUT --- I realize it wouldn't for everyone. We worked hard at first to separate home & work although to be honest to a certain degree it's always run together a bit, but we've made it work.

 

[disneychrista]

Will you be working directly with him? Or just for the same company but in a different department.

There are a lot of reason that this is a bad idea. My daughter worked under me at my last employer and I honestly don't suggest working with/for family. The biggest drawback is that it is very very hard to separate the two. Work stuff spills into family stuff, family stuff spills into work stuff.

 

[fly girl]

My husband and I met and worked at the same company. However, it was a very non conventional career (airline). So given that, we really didn't work together. I want to say in 20 years, I worked with him on 10 domestic flights. We did that no problem! lol

However, for a traditional office setting job, NO WAY! We would both hate it. Too independent and we need our space. It works for many couples, but not us.

For the life of me, I would go insane being with my husband 24/7. I don't know how those couples who drive together, work together, have lunch together, and go home together do it. I'd last at that for about two weeks. (around the longest vacation we do.)

 

[barkley]

we did, initially in the same division (different units/different supervisors). downside wuz-

for good or bad your performance outcome is tied to people's opinions right or wrong of your spouse,

can be cut-off from transfer/promotional opportunities if it's a company that doesn't let spouses work w/ or under the supervision of the other spouse,

if o/t, odd hours are mandate for everyone then if you've got a kiddo/responsibilities your hands are tied b/c you both have to be at work,

if the benefits package (esp. med insurance) takes a dive there's no other plan to at least looking into jumping on during the next open enrollment,

if there are cut-backs, layoffs, pay reductions-both paychecks take the hit,

if one of you has an h/r issue (even through no fault of your own-like wherein you are the victim of harassment or something else reportable) it's inevitable that the spouse somehow gets pulled in to it.


dh subsequently went to another division but it still wasn't ideal so he opted to go to an identical job with another government agency.


oh...........and it was more enjoyable to some extent for both of us to have separate 'friend'/co-worker relationships (can help w/the minimal venting one does at times).

 

[cinnaminny]

Yes but my husband is almost perfect. He probably wouldn’t want to work with me though

 

[jo-jo]

We did for a year or so, but knew each other for a few years before getting married. Work in the same department , different direct bosses. We were only about 40 feet from each other. I drove in the morning, he drove on the way home. I left work to be with the kids. We have no issues being together.

 

[easyas123]

...Too independent and we need our space. It works for many couples, but not us.

We are actually the same way, so I'm surprised it is working out! It helps that we have separate hobbies outside of work I think. And we never were the type of couple who had to go grocery shopping together and every time one does something the other had to go/do, too.
Plus I'd say about 1/2 the time he's out of the office anyway....For instance he left about 45 minutes ago, and I doubt he'll be home (he'll be fishing) when I manage to get home. He's fishing and I'm pouring a glass of wine and reading on the porch haha! It also helps that we are empty nesters and have more of a opportunity to do things and not have the needs of a full house of people to deal with.

 

[Erzengel]

It'd have to be some sort of laid back work. Both of our jobs now are too serious for us to work together. Plus, it'd be hard to always be 100% professional around her.