7 Ways Working From Home Has Changed The Way Our Relationships Function
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While most people think working from home is a blessing, those who have to face it understand the actual consequences of bringing your work life home. Many offices have increased the workload, and thanks to that, many relationships have started to suffer. Of course, it’s not all bad. There are plenty of benefits to working from home, and in a way, it could help your relationship with your partner grow stronger. For example, maybe you’re having a nice, romantic dinner date with your partner, and you get an urgent work email from your boss. Ruins the mood, right? This is the kind of stress that we mean when we say it can affect your relationships. Find out how working from home can disturb relationships and effectively counter problems:
1. It’s Difficult To Find The Right Balance
It’s often challenging to balance both work and personal lives. There are times when we need to prioritize things, but this does not mean that we ignore those around us. If you can switch off once you are at home at a particular time, then it won’t be too difficult for you to find the right balance. There are times when your career might need to take precedence over your relationships or your family. However, it should not always be the case with it.
2. You Tend To Vent Out Stress
It’s completely normal to want to vent out your stress and frustration due to working from home. However, they can have a significant impact on your familial and marital relationships. Since both of your jobs are being performed together, you might want to vent your problems to your significant other and not realize that you’re doing so. In the same way, you probably would vent out to a work colleague. You may not realize that your partner, too, would be having a bad day at work.
3. It’s Easier To Divide Responsibilities
“Teamwork makes the dream work”. One great thing about working from home is that you can divide the responsibilities and the workload a lot better. If your partner was not very interested in helping out with chores in the past, now that they too are working from home, it would be much easier to divide duties. Now that you and your partner are both working from home, you can divide up the chores equally and plan out your day better.
4. You Have To Come To Terms With Sharing A Common Space
One of the most significant drawbacks of working from home (especially if you live in a small apartment) is that you will have to share your workplace with your partner. Sometimes the timings for your meetings can clash, and tempers can start to fly pretty high. Things like poor internet quality and other background differences too can make the situation difficult.
5. You Will Have To Stop Playing The Blame Game
It’s essential for you to take responsibility for your mistakes and fix things. Sometimes it’s only human to make excuses for your failures, but it’s necessary to draw the line. Whether it is blaming your work for your fights or blaming your conflicts for working poorly, you must address the problems head-on. You will only succeed if you do things despite all the challenges you face. Just like trapeze artists, you will have to walk on a tightrope in order to achieve success.
6. You Will Have To Strengthen Your Communication Skills
Once the reason for your arguments is understood, it’s easier for you to agree on specific roles and responsibilities based on the strengths, availability, and weaknesses you may be facing. If you are someone who withdraws and shuts off after a fight, you will need to learn to be more open to communicating. It can be challenging to open up and communicate if you are someone who is more used to working from your office and not having to communicate with your partner on a daily basis. To build a healthy relationship, you will need to share your challenges, dreams, work priorities, and build a level of trust.
7. You Will End Up Becoming A High-Performance Power Couple
There are often more occasions to interact and more things to interact about. From being a couple who got home from work every day and spending time with each other, you will have to turn into a couple that works together at home. It’s no surprise that specific conflicts can flare up when you are in this position. You need to acknowledge and accept that your relationship dynamic has changed, and it will probably never be the same again. Most high-performance teams stay in the workspace, but now it’s crucial that you bring the same energy when it comes to working from home.
Working from home is no easy feat, and it has brought an end to many relationships that might have been considered somewhat vital earlier. If there is one thing that you do know, it’s that if your relationship can survive a pandemic, it can survive anything! Do let us know all of your thoughts on this article in the comment section below!
