As you may or may not know yet, I work full time in healthcare. WITH. MY. HUSBAND. So we not only share our home, we also share one vehicle; go to work together in said vehicle, and work a hallway away from each other. Then add in this blog. Brandon is the one behind the scenes in every way. He’s the one putting up what I’m writing, taking and editing pics, and helping with Instagram. He built my website, made the logo, and is doing all the advertising for the blog. We spend lots of time together.
Of course, we do drive each other totally crazy some days. It’s a lot to work with your husband, no matter how great he is! But we’ve been working together for 6 years and married for 9 and a half, so I think we’re doing something right.
With so many people venturing out into blogging, photography, social media marketing and the like, I’ve noticed that I am not the only one who is working with their spouse these days. It seems way more common now, and people give us fewer funny looks than they used to about the whole thing. So in case you find yourself working with your spouse…here are my pointers ☺
1. Set boundaries
We really struggled with this six years ago. We’d talk about work the whole way home, get home, and spend a good part of the night still talking about work. We realized how absolutely unhealthy it was and we decided that from then on, we’d use the drive home to discuss any lingering shoptalk. Once we got out of the car, it was time to be husband and wife. Now that we’ve been doing the blog, I need to take my own advice. We definitely need to decide on blogging boundaries as well!!
2. Communicate
Seems so obvious, right? Well, we didn’t always do a great job at this. One of us would get irritated and instead of addressing the issue, sit and stew. Not exactly productive! Just get the problem out in the open, and apologize when you’re being unreasonable (I’m NEVER unreasonable, of course. I’m saying that Brandon should apologize! Haha. I’m kidding.)
3. Remember you are on the same team
While we may have different opinions, we’re working toward the same goal. It’s good to discuss the various strategies and then decide together how to best move forward. It means that sometimes my idea will be the direction we head. Sometimes it’ll be Brandon’s. And it really doesn’t matter either way.
4. Be a couple FIRST
It can be hard to put being a couple in front of being business partners, but it’s a must. This goes along with setting boundaries, but it is a bit more of a challenge. Setting boundaries for us meant limiting shoptalk outside of work hours. Being a couple first is when we’re focusing on our relationship with each other. This means spending time together as a family after work, and then just the two of us after the kids go to bed. Often times, it’s as simple as TV and ice cream together on the couch!! It doesn’t have to be fancy! If you can sneak away for a real date sometimes, go for it!
5. Spend time apart
While we love our time together, we have recently started having some time apart. And we aren’t doing anything life-changing here either. When I say this, it’s really basic stuff like grocery shopping alone, running, reading, or quiet time in the morning. While I’m sure it’d be fun to have nights out, that’s not where we are in this stage of life. So we find little ways to recharge alone!
So there you have it! We totally love working together and over the years have found our groove. As sickening as this admission is…I honestly get sad if B is out for the day and I’m here!!!
Do you work with your significant other? What do you do to make sure you still like each other at the end of the day?!?
You guys make such a great team—at work and in life. You’re definitely a couple to look up to!