Anyone who has watched "The Office" has probably formed some sort of romantic image in their mind of working with the person they love. One of being able to sneak cute looks across the room and share air-high-fives, much like Jim and Pam. Now that I have been sharing the same workplace with that special person in my life for a couple of months, I can attest to the fact that there are certainly many nauseatingly cute moments that can happen throughout the work day. However, there is always a flip side that must be considered.
On the positive side, working with the person I love means being able to look up and see them smiling at me after having to deal with a particularly ornery person on the phone for 30 excruciating minutes. It means having someone to eat lunch with that knows exactly how ready I am to go home when the day has really only just began. It means having someone to talk to who understands the stories I bring home because they share the same space as me every day. Our coworkers cannot get enough of us when we are in the same room discussing our dinner plans for the night, or when he ruffles my hair as he walks by, or when I bring him the keys he forgot on the kitchen table. Working in the same place means we get to share one of the biggest parts of our day with each other, and that is something that has turned out to be even more enjoyable than I imagined it would be.
Nonetheless, nothing can ever be completely perfect. Working together also means there is no such thing as leaving our work out of the home. We don't just discuss our workday like the average couple and then move on to a new subject once we have both shared the most basic stories we can think of. Instead, any gripe about coworkers or management turns into an hour-long debate that starts at one small irritation and turns into a full scale discussion on the morals of the company itself. Both of us with strong opinions. Both of us with a major stake in the conversation. Both of us always think we are right. This can be true about any topic a couple has different points of view on, but there is something about having the conversation focused on where both of us work that makes it that much more complicated.
Even though it is impossible to escape work entirely, I would still say the good outweighs the bad. I suppose it makes me pretty lucky that I not only get to fall asleep with him every night, but I also get to see him each day at work suffering through his adult responsibilities right along with me.
