Your choice of life partner can make or break your career

We are normally advised to marry for love, which is totally sweet and acceptable. However, it makes life more meaningful if you chose a spouse based on love and positive impact in your profession and career.

A Washington University study backed this up with facts.

Their findings emphasised that personality traits of spouses can influence the outcomes of their individual partners at work.

“Your husband, wife or sweetheart probably doesn’t come to work with you every day, but his or her influence clearly does,” Brittany Solomon, one of the authors.

We all desire success

From job satisfaction, likelihood of promotion to income, your spouse’s traits can predict how well you will do in your career.

While talking to Bizna Kenya, tours and travel duo Simon and Sarah Kabu illustrated that their common interests brought them together and enabled them to build Bonfire Adventures from scratch to an empire.

And true to it, the couple is widely known in the tourism sector in Kenya and beyond.

Personal and professional lives are intertwined

A spouse who takes obligations to you seriously will take up responsibilities to increase your bandwidth to focus of career and personal development.

You will effortlessly be motivated to emulate this trait — if you do not have it already — so they do not appear to be pulling your spouse down.

It is perceivable that such a union results in a harmonious relationship and happiness both at home and at work.

Additionally, their contribution of valuable insights can elevate your career to new heights compared to when you relied only on what you know.

A spouse can also break your career

While it is wonderful to imagine all the happiness that can emanate from supportive unions, there are those that suffer at the hands of those they chose to spend their lives with.

Your spouse can consciously or unconsciously be using you for personal gain.

The entertainment scenes have been buzzing with the story a newly wedded Tanzanian celebrity couple that had to part ways barely months into their marriage.

One party just felt she was being used to gain fame and popularity.

If you are still in denial about a partner who always gets in the way of your work, putting obstacle after obstacle in your path, let me give you a few pointers.

The suspicious kind

Do you find yourself constantly explaining and justifying why you had to work late at some point? It is difficult to concentrate with tasks at hand when you are anxious about accounting for every minute you spent working overtime.

Comments like, “You seem to be enjoying your time with so and so, that’s why you come home late” or “Are you having an affair with your boss?” will make you less free to interact with the falsely implicated people for fear that such conversations will blow out of proportion.

A clingy spouse

Unless you took up a job that entails taking care of your spouse 24/7, you have to let them work in peace.

Checking in 40 times in a day, just to say “Hi”, even with prior knowledge of a busy day is downright disturbing.

Showing affection and attention to your partner is okay, however, too much of it will reduce your productivity at work. Asking, “Have you eaten,” every two hours will not bring home the bacon!

The demoralising one

“You are too ambitious, there is no way you will achieve that.” Such discouraging words will in the long run dry your zeal to make it in your career.

A partner who constantly tramples your ideas, ambitions is not the kind you want to share your time and life with.

You may find yourself losing track of pursuing your dreams. They may be earning more than you, but, undermining your work, making it seem less important, will eat away your self-confidence.

The drama expert

This one will cry his or her eyeballs out when you show hesitation about opening a joint account before you are seriously committed.

They will make you take care of them as if they were children yet you won’t see any efforts on their end to want to meet you halfway.

They will throw all manner of tantrums when you question their lack of involvement. They will overact on trivial issues to manipulate you to retract your concerns.

Leech alert. Run. Relationships are a two-way street. Each party has to deliberately put in time, effort and resources to make it work.

The boss who won’t help out at home

Majority of Kenyan working parents have had to rely on domestic managers to keep burn out from combining work and house chores at bay.

However, domestic managers do leave without notice and couples have to balance housework and their jobs until they secure another one.

Cooking and cleaning up are basic life skills. An effort to relive you of some responsibilities at home so that you can both have ample time to rest will give you better days at home and at work.