One of the biggest transitions for people last year was the new reality of working from home, and what’s more, sharing your work space with a spouse or partner. Couples are working alongside each other more often than before, which introduces a bunch of advantages as well as challenges. How will that transition play out in the long run?
Jennifer Petriglieri’s Couples That Work is a study of 113 couples who have worked separate careers side by side. Is it easy? No! It’s a series of transitions and uncertainties, but as long as there is communication and a common goal there are opportunities to thrive. Since this is a new reality for many of us, this might be the road map we’ll need!
Here is the summary on Amazon:
“Finding fulfillment in both love and work isn't easy--but it's possible.
“The majority of couples today are dual-career couples. As anyone who's part of such a relationship knows, this presents big challenges: trying to raise kids and achieve career goals while caring for and supporting your partner can seem impossible. Yet most advice for dual-career couples fails, framing the challenges as a zero-sum game in which one partner’s gain is the other's loss and solutions feel like sacrifices or unsatisfactory trade-offs.
“This book is different. In Couples That Work, INSEAD professor Jennifer Petriglieri rejects conventional, one-size-fits-all solutions and instead focuses on how dual-career couples can tackle and resolve the challenges they face throughout their lives--together. She identifies three key phases of exploration and personal growth in every couple's work-life journey, showing how partners must navigate these together to strengthen their bond. Each phase is crystallized with a question:
- How can we make this work? The first phase focuses on the logistics of combining two busy lives and often involves the demands of young children.
- What do we really want? In the second phase, couples learn to navigate their midlife crises in ways that allow each partner to continue to feel happy and fulfilled.
- Who are we now? With careers winding down and kids grown up, this last phase offers new freedoms--and uncertainties.
“Based on a five-year research project, the book includes interviews with couples from over thirty countries--from executives to entrepreneurs and from twenty something newlyweds to dual-career grandparents.
“Filled with vivid real-life stories, keen insights, and engaging exercises, Couples That Work will help couples develop their own unique answers to that most pressing question: How can we successfully combine love and work?”
