How To Deal With A Relationship With A Workaholic

Workaholics are people who love their job and spend most of the time doing stuffs that revolve around their profession. For such people, work becomes the top priority in life and they can think nothing beyond their work even in the spare time. Having a relationship with a workaholic is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. It calls in for a lot of patience and determination on the part of the other partner to deal with a situation like this. Feeling left out or ignored is one of the many emotions that might run through you every day when dealing with a workaholic, after all with all that lack of attention and feeling of rejection. Though having such emotions are natural, you need to realize that your partner is not purposefully doing this to make you feel terrible or unloved. In fact, it is just that he/she is unable to balance his/her professional and personal life. Dealing with a workaholic calls in for a lot of love, dedication and patience. Remember, it might take some time initially but your trials would surely pay off and make your workaholic partner take out some time for you. In the following lines, we have listed effective tips on dealing with a workaholic partner.

 

The first and foremost step in dealing with a workaholic is to understand the reason for your partner’s situation. Knowing the reason would make it clear to you whether the workaholic situation is temporary or permanent and also what made the other person a workaholic in the first place. Try to sit back and ponder over the workaholic nature of your spouse or partner. He/she might be working till wee hours every day to get a promotion, earn overtime or meet a huge project deadline. Working till late can also be an effort to please an under-appreciative taskmaster.

 

Sometimes certain months of the calendar are deemed important ones when it comes to work. For instance, for those in banking jobs, financial year end and beginning or tax season is an important time. Likewise holiday season is an important time for those in travel industry. In case your partner is busy only during some months round the year, you should try to be considerate, as this time would definitely phase out. However, if none of these apply for your partner, then there is a bigger problem. The two of you need to sit down and discuss matters.

 

The best would be to take up an activity and get your partner involved with it. Confused? Workaholics love their job and do not like doing anything else apart from their work. If your partner is also one amongst the sorts, the best would be to divert his/her attention to something else. You can help by forcing him/her out of the workplace and getting his/her interest developed in some other activities, such as exercising, or some game. This will not only disconnect his/her mind from work, but will also prove to be beneficial for the health. Also, it would give you the desired time and space.

 

Maintain constant contact with your workaholic partner. Consistent contacts during the day from your side, without letting your ego take over you, will make your partner realize that there is someone thinking about him/her and that he/she has a life beyond the workplace as well. Short phone calls, e-mails or messages can be some ways of maintaining contact. Believe it or not, these bouts of expression from your side would be enough to ring the realization bells in the mind of your workaholic partner.

 

Workaholics simply think about their work and unconsciously start conversing about their work and workplace at home as well. They get so involved in their work life that they have nothing else, but ‘work’ to talk about. It is again the responsibility of the other partner to be patient and make sure to divert the attention to other topics. When your workaholic partner comes home, speak to him/her about family issues if any or generally about any other topics. This will divert his/her mind and force the person to think out of the box.