Harvard Business Review: How Dual Career Couples Make It Work
Work-life balance is a challenge for everyone, but for dual-career couples it can be even more complicated. In today’s increasingly competitive workforce, both partners may be committed to successfully advancing their own careers. Nonetheless, dual-career couples can still find balance and make it work. Here are some tips on how they can do just that:
Communication is Key
The most important thing for dual-career couples is effective communication. It’s essential to set aside time to talk about each other’s career aspirations, successes, and setbacks–both separately and together. Doing this helps keep each other in the loop and allows both partners to plan and coordinate their schedules. It also helps them develop a strong support system for each other.
Work Together to Develop Strategies
Together, dual-career couples can work to identify and develop strategies that can help them make their work-life balance achievable. This can include creating a plan for how to manage their time and allocate their resources. It can also involve exploring job sharing and other flexible work arrangements.
Share Household Chores and Responsibilities
It’s important for couples to find a way to share the household chores and responsibilities. By working together and taking advantage of free time, both partners can contribute to making the household run smoothly. This will help with the overall balance of the relationship between work and home life.
Create “Us Time”
It is important for dual-career couples to make time just for them. This can be done by scheduling activities like dinner dates or monthly weekends away. This time can be used to build relationships, share interests, and simply reconnect and grow.
Take Time to Recharge
For any couple, regardless of their careers, it’s important to make time to relax. Taking time to de-stress can help emotionally and physically, allowing couples to cope better with the pressures of their work and home lives.
Working together and making the effort to communicate and plan can help dual-career couples succeed in their relationship and thrive in their respective fields. By following these tips and remaining committed to their own personal growth as well as their relationship, dual-career couples can make it work.
Source: Harvard Business Review: How Dual Career Couples Make It Work
