In 2010 I was inspired to write this post:
The Spouse’s Role in Your Job Search
I wrote this about 4 years after I got laid off because I had, by that time, worked with many job seekers, and was realizing that my personal experience with my job search and my wife was par for the course for almost everyone I talked to. That is, it is a very lonely experience, and we just didn’t know how to communicate during my job search.
We got to a point where we would communicate good news with one another, but the problem was that there wasn’t “good news.” I was running into brick wall after brick wall, with no real success. With all of these failures, with the lack of good news, I found that we weren’t communicating at all.
Not good for a relationship.
I wrote this post with 13 points and I am hopeful that it helps you recalibrate with your spouse during this exceptionally difficult period. I want you to take any of my points, and any others that you come up with, and then sit down with your spouse and have a real, open conversation.
The job search is not a time for a relationship to pause. I encourage you to keep the communication open and real, and realize that your job search is temporary, and hopefully your relationship will weather this hardship (and others) just fine.
Best wishes to you and your significant other as you navigate this very difficult period… together!
Suppose you are not married?
Very married. Going on 23 years. I realize that not all marriages are the same. Hopefully that blog post is something that can start a conversation between spouses where at least one is in a job search. Whether you use my points or make up your own, I have experienced and observed that communication between spouses when there is a job search is lacking.