I was chatting with a man who is the boss of a half a dozen employees. He described the pressure from his company to coerce those workers to put in fifty or sixty hours a week. Yet he plants himself as a shield, protecting them from burn out by sending them home after forty hours, and granting comp days if they do have to work overtime for a deadline. 

He clearly cares about those people, and their individual circumstances. The success of the company affects them all, yet he has the wisdom to see that buying productivity with the backs of its employees is imprudent, bordering on morally wrong.

The conversation turned toward marriage, and how he and his wife are slogging through the intense years of young children and demanding careers. His sense of protectiveness for his wife was evident as well. He moved from a chair across the room to sitting beside her on the couch. 

 

"I want to be there for the family, and not just barking marching orders between walking through the door and bedtime."

 

As he spoke they looked at each other. For a moment they forgot that we were in the same room. I sensed the numbers on their Partnership Meter rising. There is no question that there is a lot of stress on each of them. But being connected bolsters them both. 

 

Scott Haltzman wrote a book in which he suggests that men should treat their marriage like a job. He points out that many enormously successful business men are unable to sustain vibrant marriages, and articulates ways to let that corporate savvy benefit their relationships as well. 

 

The returns could surpass quarterly profits in more ways than one. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Photobooththing

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