Remote work is an amazing concept that can breed a lot benefits when done right. However, for it to be a success, it needs a lot of sacrifices and adjustments. One tricky area that needs to be handled with a great level of ‘finesse’ is your relationship with your partner.
We therefore need to think about, “How to survive working from home with your partner.” This is because is not an easy task. If taken lightly, you can experience serious strain in your relationship and unnecessary mental stress.
How To Survive Working from Home With Your Partner
To start on the exercise of how to make working from home a success while simultaneously allowing your relationship to flourish, you must communicate.
You can start speaking with your partner and have an honest conversation about working from home. This will help you to understand and clarify both your expectations and avoid arguments. Also, in the event of a misunderstanding, all arguments are easily solved because you spoke.
Another good trick is to be more empathetic to your partner and listen to them more. The Coronavirus pandemic crisis needs people to be strong to cope with the situation. However, not everyone uses the same coping mechanisms. This will therefore need you to be more understanding of your partner.
Last but not least, you can engage in fun activities that can make you to bond more with your partner. This will make your relationship grow and be stronger. In addition, it may provide you with a conducive atmosphere to work more comfortably at home.
Another challenge that affects relationships is finances. One of the biggest effects of the pandemic has been the cost of living that has risen exponentially. This can have a ripple effect on your relationship and be a potential home breaker.
As you might know, financial problems are one of the biggest causes for the strain and eventual failure of relationships. If you and your family are facing financial challenges and you work from home, chances are you may feel very stressed and frustrated.
Juggling all these issues and making the relationship work for you may feel like a burden. You need a great level of tact to handle such situations better.
In our post, we aim to provide you with tips that can help you to successfully work from home with your partner.
These strategies will help you to build a healthy relationship while simultaneously staying productive. You should take advantage of working from home to be closer to your partner. Let’s get to know some of the techniques you can use to survive working from home with your partner.
Have More Open and Honest Communication with Your Partner
Normally, stress may harm you in so many different levels. In your professional life, it can cause your productivity to take a serious nosedive. Extreme stress will make pursuing of your professional goals seem very elusive.
When it comes to your personal life, extreme stress can make even the healthiest of relationships to turn into a rocky situation. Add the havoc created by the Coronavirus pandemic into the mix and you may have a recipe for disaster.
If there were existing differences and conflicts between you and your spouse, they may get even worse. You should therefore work towards being more open to sharing your fears and concerns with your partner. You need to be more honest and open up to your partner about what makes you happy and what does not.
Avoid harboring all the emotions and problems that are weighing you down. Communicating in a more open way will offer both of you the chance to address potentially damaging problems.
Be More Empathetic to Your Partner
The current state of things globally has caused a lot of uneasiness and confusion. There is a high level of anxiety all over the world. Some have been able to cope with the state of things. On the other hand, others are yet to come to come into terms with the new normal.
You may have a bigger threshold than your partner when it comes to enduring the hardships that have been triggered by Covid-19. Working from home together with your partner becomes much easier when you recognize you are different from your partner.
If they feel bogged down by the weight of issues and problems in your marriage or their work, be more empathetic. Offer them a listening ear. This is not only important to them but also for your own well-being. If your partner is doing okay, you will also feel okay, right? If they are not doing well, you will also bear the effects of how they feel.
Their stress will be passed on to you. It is therefore imperative that you make sure your better half is in their best shape. This is also for your peace of mind. In addition, if both of you are doing okay, the environment will be good for working at home. Both of you can end up being as productive as you wish.
Engage in Fun Activities that Can Create a Stronger Bond
It is common to find that many people get “bored” or “get used” to their partners after a long period of living together. Being married or staying in a relationship for many years may make it feel like a routine. Over time, the “honeymoon” phase of the relationship dwindles.
One crucial factor that will make working from home with your partner a success is if your relationship is strong. However, after staying being with each other for many years, this may not be as easy as it sounds.
One quick way to deal with this issue is to plan activities that are out of the normal routine. Choose a fun and engaging activity that you and your partner can take part in together. For example, you can choose to jog or join a dancing class in your community.
Cooking lessons are also a great way to take your minds off things while also building your friendship and chemistry. This will bring you closer and also form the basis towards a more supportive environment for working from home.
Place a Distinct Boundary Between Your Work and Your Partner
This will work to your advantage in many different ways. First, it will help you to cultivate a stronger bond between you and your partner. It will also help you to increase your productivity. In addition, you are able to create a situation where you can work from the comfort of your home with your partner.
What exactly does putting a boundary entail here?
You need to understand that the time that you have set aside for your work should be used for just that-work! On the other hand, the time that you and your partner have dedicated to spending with each other should be used to bond.
This will ensure that your spouse does not feel neglected. Your relationship will not be strenuous and will actually thrive from respect and be a stronger bond.
In addition, this will ensure that your professional life will not invade your personal life and vice versa. If your partner is a remote worker just like yourself, both of you will be able to achieve more productivity.
This is because of the healthy work-life balance that both of you will be able to achieve while working from home.
Have an Outlet to Release Your Work-Related Stress
Another good way of ensuring that you survive working from home with your partner is having an outlet to release your stress. This is a very important step to take.
Work normally causes a lot of stress that uncontrolled may cause fatigue and burnout. Learning to manage stress while working from home with your partner is essential. You ought to devise stress-coping mechanisms where you can freely channel your built-up stress.
For example, you can choose that exercise and workouts will be the outlet where you can vent out all the accumulated stress and tension. This will give you a good chance to relax. In fact, you can even do the workouts together. You will not find yourself venting out your frustrations on your partner.
As a result, you are able to cultivate a more compassionate and understanding relationship with your spouse. This creates a good atmosphere where you are able to work more productively from home with your partner. There is a boomerang effect here.
Having a good relationship or wonderful marriage with your partner will not cause you undue stress. Your work will therefore not be impacted negatively.
Help Each Other Out in Handling Family Responsibilities
The responsibilities and family duties at home can be a big source of stress. If you couple this up with the fact that you need to work as well, you are in for a hard time.
Picture a situation where you have kids and are working from home. There are the normal routine duties that you have to do for them every single day. Waking up early, preparing them for school, and taking them to school. This routine can get extremely exhausting if you factor in your job, house chores, and cooking as well.
These parallel demands can totally drain you if you do not have enough assistance. It is recommended that sharing of roles is the best approach here. You and your partner will have to take a more active role in taking care of the family responsibilities.
And that’s not all. You will both need to collaborate on the duties at home; cooking, cleaning, going out to get the groceries etc., A shared effort will consequently create a more conducive atmosphere to work better in your home.
Key Point To Remember
We have established that an important way to ensure that remote working is a success is to create the right environment for yourself. The right environment is not merely about having the latest gadgets and tt is not about having a room fully stacked up with laptops and expensive furniture.
The right environment has more to do with tranquility and the peaceful environment needed to perform your job much more effectively. Your partner or spouse represents a vital piece in this puzzle.
They can either hamper or boost the productivity you can achieve in your work. For them to spur you towards great levels of success, you both need to be reading from the same script.
Putting more effort towards ensuring your relationship is a success will go a long way into ensuring you work at home in a more productive way as well. The opposite is also true. If your relationship is not doing okay, the stress from that may invade your work leaving you incapable of producing high-quality work!
Final Thoughts
Working from home is not easy on its own. However, it should not be perceived to be hard and an ‘impossible’ mission to crack. There are several factors that must be considered. Some may be internal while others may be external but all these will play a pivotal role towards the success of your work from home stint.
One important factor is the state of your relationship with your partner. This may actually be one of the biggest factors that will make your time working from home either a success or a big failure. If you have a healthy relationship or marriage, you will be better placed to be more productive.
This is because your home will offer a very conducive environment to get a lot of work done. Picture a situation where your spouse is also on a work-from-home arrangement. If both of you do not take the necessary steps towards creating a peaceful working space in your home, you will hurt your careers.
We hope our tips help you strike a good work-life balance and build more chemistry with your partner. This will help you not only to survive working from home with your partner but actually to successfully navigate the murky waters of working from home with your partner.
