Shift Jobs and Marriage: How You Will be Affected

Chances are every time a work schedule requires any of the couples to work across the night the attitude of the partner left at home turns really sour. Shift work does affect a family and marriage.

However, this is not unique to any one individual since medical caregivers, service industry workers, fire-fighters, production workers and taxi drivers, among others, are affected.

In essence, it puts a lot of stress on any marriage, especially for a new couple that has no such prior experience.

It's possible for a schedule to change, so many times in the course of a marriage. The affected individual could work overnights, evenings and days for weeks on end and even switch between evenings and days.

In a single day, the breadwinner (husband or wife) could work both night and day for 12 hours in a single week. At times a person can be called to work consistently on overtime on a 12-hour shift. In such scenarios, shift changes bring forth serious obstacles in any marriage.

Be proactive

You have to be as proactive as you can. Practical strategies need to be used to improve the relationship and you do not have to develop such strategies via a trial and error way; there are many ways this can be done.

Of importance is to realize you are not the only couple suffering from a changing shift or the absence of a spouse at night.

It's not a unique issue to anyone and since the reason for working in such a scenario might be very critical to your happiness, providence and sustenance, finding a way out that works for both of you while strengthening your union is important.

That way, you will definitely maintain a working and healthy marriage full of understanding and capable of countering the effects that follow an erratic schedule through a number of areas.

Planned time for both of you

Shift jobs as mentioned take a toll on the couple and could strain a marriage if they go unchecked. Many marriage counselors recommend a couple with such a problem to come up with consistent date nights to ensure the marriage remains warm and healthy.

However, a shift job makes it hard for a regularly planned time for the man and woman. Shift work has a way of ruining dates that have been planned.

Sometimes, the shift worker is so tired on that day drowsiness takes over and the date is postponed or forgotten.

As such, while planning a date, the shift the man or woman will be working in has to be considered, level of fatigue on that day and the shift he/she will be working the following day.

Afternoon rides on a motorbike, lunches or breakfasts usually make a lot of sense for shift workers than an activity planned for the evening.

Refrain from certain activities

Most women or men whose spouses work on night shifts have realized that building solid marriages requires they stop engaging in activities that keep them away from their families, especially those that can be avoided.

When the shift working partner is at home, it makes perfect sense for the other partner to refrain from engaging in volunteer programs, classes and committee meetings that meet on a weekly basis.

Even the time used to serve in church programs can be reduced while delaying celebrations on holidays by a couple of days or hours. This allows the couple to celebrate and be together during such times.

Planned time for kids

Shift workers also miss the opportunity of being with their children as much as they would want. In most cases, they arrive just after kids have left for school or when they are asleep. Sometimes sleep and too much fatigue limit their involvement with their kids.

In such circumstances, children think their parents do not want to be around them and usually feel ignored and left out in the lives of their parents; a tired parent probably wants to be alone as much as possible after arriving from work and kids feel they are the reason, yet it was the job schedule.

If shift working couples are to build a good relationship with their kids, both parents have to find time to be with the children.

If the children are young, it makes perfect sense for the shift working parent to attend their concerts and plays, whether he or she has a night shift waiting up.

In case the shift is at night or evening, taking kids for breakfast or lunch at least once a week will be useful in cementing the relationship between the parent and children.

Communicate day and night

Working on a shift job, whether it's both or one of you doesn't mean communication will be strained and absent.

Learn to text one another while on breaks and talk about all manner of things taking place at the workplace, little, insignificant or major.

Communicate and share what each one of you is going through all day long, whether you are tired, sad, joyous, hurt or happy.

Since you are not seeing one another most of the time, the little time you are together must always be a time of fun with zero stress.

The bad stuff can wait for another time and doesn't have to be shared at such a time when you need to be together. You can also find a way of sharing the bad stuff or indicating how tired you really are without really blaming her or him.

Fill your partner in on the main items

Shift jobs do not remove the responsibility that comes with a marriage such as taking kids to the dentist or a meeting with the head teacher in your kids' school.

Find a notebook and note all those important details from picking a gift for his dad's birthday, upcoming get together, parents-teacher meeting and virtually everything.

When the shift working partner is free she/he will read everything and even leave similar information on what she/he did about the situations.

Love notes do not die after marriage and you can leave some for your number one love and let him/her know how much you miss being together and your love for him/her is eternal, particularly if both of you work on night or different shifts.

Above all, working on a shift, as much as your partner understands could take a toll on your marriage. Even as you find ways to mitigate your absence and maximize on the little time you have together perhaps you can be applying for another job that does not come with such an erratic schedule.