Do you share a home office with your spouse?

by Rachel Smith
25 April 2014

Do you share a home office with your spouse?My husband’s new job involves working remotely from home. It’s not the first time we’ve shared our home office, but people I mention this to in passing generally have one of two reactions: ‘How lovely you have the choice to do that!’ and ‘Seriously? Are you sure that’s a good idea for your marriage?’

Working from home in general does blur the lines a bit and I’m the first to admit it can be decidedly unhealthy. Like those occasions when you end the work day at your desk and continue it on your laptop on the sofa (with one eye on The Good Wife or MKR as a lame pretense that you do actually have some semblance of work/life balance).

And sharing an office with your spouse does beg the questions: is spending SO much time together a negative? What do you possibly have to talk about at the end of the day? Of course, all couples are different in this respect. Some relish kissing each other good-bye of a morning and like the space their respective offices provide. For us, it doesn’t seem to make much difference. We’ve worked apart and in the same home office many times and I actually – shock horror – adore it when my husband has a long stint of working from home.

Maybe it’s because, after so many years not being in a traditional workplace, it’s a novelty for me to have him around – or because he’s far less lazy about making pots of tea than I am. It could be that we both like working in peace (so no radio or music) and we’re good at getting into our zones and leaving each other alone. Of course, there are days where I will force him to watch cute animal videos or be my sounding board about a client or editor. There are times when he’ll have an IT-inspired hissy fit and kick the printer or other inanimate object, but it’s not unusual for us to go a whole day without really talking. There’s just the odd, hot cup of tea being plonked next to my keyboard (and a biscuit if I’m lucky) to remind me he’s there at all.

It makes me wonder if I’d ever contemplate leaving my home office to work in a shared office space with other freelancers. It’s something I’ve thought about before – and, truth be told, is most appealing for the notion of leaving your work somewhere else at the end of the day – but that’s probably a whole other blog post.

Over to you: Do you and your partner share a home office? Has it been good or bad for your relationship? Any advice you’d share for couples who might be contemplating it?

Rachel Smith

7 responses on "Do you share a home office with your spouse?"

  1. coloursofsydney says:

    Yeah, we do share a home office, but he’s got a workshop as well, where he spends a good part of the day, and I sneak into a ‘private corner’ overlooking our backyard for some other creative/intellectual tasks. Besides, I’ve got a sessional job that takes me to Sydney three times a week.
    We seem to manage pretty well and no laptops ever make their way to the lounge or (God forbid!) to the bedroom.
    And yep, you’ve guessed right, he makes very good coffee 🙂

    1. Rachel Smith says:

      Coloursofsydney – sounds like you’ve got it sussed. I confess, sometimes my laptop makes it into the bedroom! Oh dear, I really have got a problem.

      Leo – Absolutely agree sharing an office has to be with someone who respects your space and vice versa! The coffee thing is a bonus 🙂

      HelenHelenBack – My hubby IS actually an IT guy, so I’m very lucky to have a build-in IT dept… I do try not to exploit it TOO much, haha!

  2. Leo Wiles says:

    Sharing a home office sounds like bliss with the right person who respects the fact that you are both working from home – and makes great coffee.
    However, with my ex this backfired spectacularly. Mainly because he felt his work was infinitely more superior therefore the motherload of childcare and domesticity almost crushed me as he was now underfoot and when not seeing clients felt that as I was visible I should also be available leaving no breathing space or headspace whatsoever which I find a necessity for writing.

  3. Helenhelenback says:

    I’ve been sharing the home office with my mister for four months now and we both love it. My experience is very similar – right down to the well-timed cups of tea he makes me and the IT hissy fits. (It’s hard sometimes not having an IT help desk to call when things go wrong. Funny, as we both used to complain so much about IT help at our former in-house jobs). But the key is mutual respect – which means keeping it quiet when the other one is on the phone or working solidly, and sharing the home workload too.

  4. I share a home office with my wife. It mostly works OK, although there’s always those moments when one is not busy and wants to chat while the other is on deadline for something. Often though if we’re both busy we’ll barely say anything beyond, would you like a cup of tea.

    We’re on wireless broadband which can create problems. I’ll be researching a story and will have a stack of tabs open on Chrome and my wife will want to do a Skype video call to her office or she’ll need to pull down a file off the office server so I’ll need to close all the tabs etc. because there’s just not enough bandwidth to do everything.

    I’m the IT support guy for both of us which can totally stuff up my day if something goes wrong. Fortunately it doesn’t happen too often.

    1. Rachel Smith says:

      So’s my hubby, but I still dread it if something goes wrong IT wise. It really can throw everything for a few days. But we’re lucky – touch wood it’s once a year that our computers have a meltdown.

  5. Fran Molloy says:

    My husband and I have both worked from home for more than a decade now – and we soon realised that working in the same room was not conducive to a happy marriage. Now we are in separate rooms – on separate floors – and often email or Skype each other to resolve a quick issue… and we work really well apart!

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