What To Do When Your Partner Brings Work Home With Them At Christmas

What To Do When Your Partner Brings Work Home With Them At Christmas

While many of us will be able to escape our jobs completely at Christmas, blocking out all thoughts of the world of work, it is those who are feeling most stressed in their jobs who will find it the hardest to switch off their brains and enter the traditional Christmas food coma with the rest of their families.

Perhaps they’ll be working late on Christmas Eve to meet pressing deadlines, or perhaps they’ve left the office in a hurry knowing there are stacks of tasks left undone.

Whatever the reasons, the arrival of the festive season sometimes just isn’t enough to allow us to switch off and get in the swing of the festivities.

But it isn’t all bad news for those who have work on the brain. Often, the sense of space that a few days off gives us can provide a fresh perspective on any work issues we are facing, particularly if someone is willing to listen to our work-related concerns. 

Many of us will look to our nearest and dearest to give us advice on these issues. In fact, research from T-Mobile shows that 51% of small business owners see their partner as their most trusted business advisor.

While it may be the last thing that we want to discuss with our partner at this time, we should be supportive and listen to them if work is on their mind over the Christmas season.

Psychologically, talking to our partner is the closest thing to talking to ourselves. By discussing a problem out loud we manage to do what we fail to when it’s spiralling around in our head.

Often talking to a spouse is most valuable because they become a vital sounding-board as well as a giver of actual advice.

A spouse tends to listen and speak without prejudice, meaning they’ll fillet out the real problem without all the murkiness of office politics and power-play.

If there is a case of taking sides they’re also the one person you know who will be in your army no matter what happens.

Another reason we may turn to our partner for business advice is that, without realising it, our partner is usually more than just an ideal marriage companion, they’re probably also the idea business partner as well.

When we marry we tend to pick someone who makes a complimentary psychological ‘fit’ in terms of personality balance and this should work in business as well as in the marriage.

If you’re the dramatic panic-merchant, your partner will often be calm and reassuring, or if you tend to intellectualise they’ll often be the one to bring humour to the discussion.

So if your partner turns to you for business advice this Christmas, don’t be too surprised or upset. It is likely that they are just looking for some independent and honest advice from their most trusted advisor.

If you can help them through a tricky time in their career you’ll both be better off for it in the long term.

Research key findings:

- Small business owners trust husbands or wives over accountants and bank managers to give them straight talking business advice

- Small business owners seek advice from those that will ‘tell them the truth’ and ‘give it to them straight’

Over half of UK small business owners will turn to their husband, wife or partner before anyone else for straight talking business advice, according to a national survey of 2,000 small business owners by T-Mobile.

Spouses and partners (51%) were preferred to accountants (22%), trade bodies or other local businesses (3%) and bank managers (2%).

This trend was greatest in the North, with nearly six out of ten small business owners in Liverpool and Newcastle (58%) turning to their wives and husbands over accountants (16% and 17% respectively).

Londoners were the least trusting of bank managers, with only one per cent turning to them for straight talking advice on issues affecting their business.

More than half (53%) of small business owners choose their business advisor based on who they trust to tell them the truth. A further 27 per cent seek business advice from those who were most likely to 'give it to them straight'.

Judi James, one of the UK’s leading behavioural experts, comments: "This research from T-Mobile highlights how highly we value those who get to the point and give it to us straight when discussing business issues.

"It’s understandable that we tend to turn to our partners for this honest and clear advice - they have the same goals as us and understand the complexities of the possible answers to our problems.

"Unlike other advisors, they have no hidden agenda and aren’t trying to impress us to secure a contract.

"Psychologically, talking to our partner is the closest thing we have to talking to ourselves. By logically discussing our problems with them we have to ‘straight talk’ the problem over.

"In this respect they become a vital sounding-board as well as an actual advisor."