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Serving Knoxville Since 1994
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Juggling your job and your divorce

On Behalf of | Oct 17, 2017 | blog | 0 comments

Whether you’re merely considering divorce or are already in the midst of one, you’re likely feeling stressed. While often a transition to a brighter future, divorce can also be a taxing time. Hopefully, most people will be patient with you, but someone who may be less than understanding is your employer. Even if you have the most sympathetic boss in the world, you’ll likely still want to make an effort to keep your job separate from your divorce, to try to remain as productive an employee as possible.

Unfortunately, this may be more difficult than it sounds. Even if you’re able to compartmentalize your personal life emotionally, there are still a lot of tasks and details, both minor and less so, that you’ll need to handle throughout the divorce proceedings. So how can you keep the stresses of your personal life from negatively affecting your employment and productivity?

Tips for separating your life from your livelihood

Your job doesn’t define who you are, it’s true, but your career is probably an important part of your life, one you’d prefer not to jeopardize just because you’re going through a rough patch. While you might find some days easier than others, advisors recommend trying to always:

  • Leave your divorce at the door
  • Control your thought process
  • Carefully schedule legal appointments

No one expects you to keep your personal life completely separate from your daily work life — after all, you’re only human — but if you attempt to follow these three methods as often as possible, you might find it easier to continue being a productive employee.

Leave your divorce at the door

Perhaps easier said than done, but when you step through the door at work, try to leave divorce worries behind. Though of course, emotions effect all parts of life to some degree, advisors recommend telling yourself as you step through the doors at work that you will not focus on whatever current divorce issues you may be going through. You can tell yourself that while you’re at work, you’ll concentrate on doing your job to the utmost of your ability.

Control your thought process

It’s not unusual to find yourself overwhelmed by some of the aspects of divorce, be they emotional, financial or logistical. However, if you catch yourself frequently distracted by these thoughts instead of focusing on your job, you may worry that your productivity will decrease until it affects your work and is noticed by employers.

As an alternative, consider establishing a set time daily to concentrate on issues and decisions involved in the divorce proceedings, so that when thoughts start to intrude, you can put them off, knowing you will have time later to devote to the divorce. For instance, if you find yourself dwelling on a worry at 10:30 a.m., you may find it easier to return your focus to the tasks at hand if you know you’ll be able to give the issue your full attention that evening at 6 p.m.

Carefully schedule legal appointments

Balancing work attendance with legal appointments may be one of the most challenging aspects of all. You may wish to try scheduling your visits with your divorce attorney for later in the afternoons, or even evenings and weekends if possible. While you might find it tempting to get these appointments out of the way first thing in the morning, this could mean a day spent at work mulling over the events that transpired during the visits; meetings scheduled for late afternoons won’t require you to return to work afterwards.

Balancing your personal and work life

Remaining a productive employee in good standing is essential, both for your finances and for your emotional and mental well-being. While you may know that the stresses of divorce are only temporary and you’re working toward a better, more stable future, it’s still true that the challenges can have an effect. It can be helpful to find a supportive Tennessee lawyer with experience in a variety of divorce situations, who can offer experienced counsel and legal knowledge as well as understanding.