Tips to Keep your Personal Life Out of the Office when You’re Going through a Divorce
Divorce is an invasive and emotional experience that can touch every facet of a person’s life. However, allowing personal problems such as divorce to sabotage unrelated aspects of our lives is a serious threat to your career and overall welfare. Learning to separate your personal life from your job is critical in successfully navigating this difficult time. Also, prioritizing your career may help provide a much-needed distraction during a time of distress.
Here are five simple steps to separating your personal life and career:
1. Keep the divorce private.
Avoid telling your co-workers or boss about your divorce. Keeping your divorce private can help ease the stresses and distractions that your divorce may cause for you at work and helps build the divide between your personal and professional lives.
2. Handle your divorce around work.
Scheduling court dates and handling divorce matters without disturbing your work day or schedule, when possible, helps to define the separation between the professional world and your personal life. Keeping your work schedule intact can help you maintain focus and become less distracted or emotional on the job.
3. Avoid divorce related communications at work.
Talking with your ex or attorney while at the office can be a huge distraction and bring unnecessary emotions into the workplace. Aside from emergencies, it’s best to avoid talking with or communicating with any party directly related to your divorce while at work.
4. Don’t use office resources for your divorce.
Using the office printer or computers to handle matters related to your divorce is not only bringing your workplace into your personal life but may also lead to your office resources being sought after during the divorce proceedings. Both possibilities can bring unwanted stress on you and your career.
5. Don’t pull your employer into your divorce.
Asking for your boss to lower your pay or simply lying about your income can directly drag your employer into your divorce. Bringing your employer into the middle of your personal matters reflects poorly on your career and can cause turmoil in your professional life as well as your personal life.
