by Eric Bailey

Created on: July 14, 2010

For many entrepreneurs who need a little extra help at the office, a family business, or even a person who just has strong fondness for his or her corporation, there may come an opportunity for spouses to work with one another, and it is then that it becomes important to examine the disadvantages of married couples working together.

While there may certainly appear to be some benefits to this particular arrangement, such as ease of communication and familiarity with strengths or weaknesses, these matrimonial positives are usually offset by the disadvantages of married couples working together. Of the great many reasons, whether subtle or obvious, why it is typically a bad idea, there are a few overarching themes that lend the argument.

Constancy

While the importance or necessity of so-called “alone time” can be debated and is often outright questioned, many couples find that they need to strike a balance in their lives concerning how they spend their time and who they spend it with. It can be demanding, exhausting, and unexciting to constantly spend every hour of the day with a spouse, yet this possibility would be much more difficult to avoid in a working-together situation. Many couples, if they were honest, would admit that one of the disadvantages of married couples working together would be overexposure.

Baggage

As much as people would love to avoid emotional involvement and aftershocks from the events of their lives, moments often occur that leave an impression and affect us for a particular amount of time thereafter. If it is something that affects us emotionally, or mentally, or just our attitude in general, it can affect our work, our relationships, our usually enjoyments, etc. Considering the significance of a spouse and how often they, then, are involved in such events, having to go to work every day (which would, for most couples, sometimes actually serve as an escape) with the source of your stress and anxiety can cause some potentially awkward situations, and ones that would likely poorly affect your aptitude for the job.

Conflict of Interest

This is a concept that may be avoided if the couple can avoid working in the same area, or in the same department, but in such cases is magnified; and very much especially so, in the example of one spouse actually supervising the other. In this case, tricky decisions then have to be made in matters of discipline, quality control, delegation, etc. For instance, passing along even constructive criticism may illicit an unpleasant response; this usually would not be an issue if it were a typical subordinate, but with a spouse, the other member has to live with the after effects in the evening. Likewise, if the situation advances to the point where the supervising spouse is considering a round of promotions, bonuses, differing working incentives, vacation requests, tough announcements, or other sensitive company issues, the disadvantages of married couples working together can quickly become apparent, even obvious.

Yet despite all of these hurdles and obstacles toward bliss being shared in marriage both at home and at the office, come couple truly do manage to perform this balancing act successfully, especially if they have a similar passion for the work involved. The important aspect to consider is for the couple to freely acknowledge the potential risks beforehand and proactively address them in a wise, mature manner, lest they too fall victim to the avoidable disadvantages of married couples working together.

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