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Despite the quirks, many couples find perks to their new professional arrangements.
When Alissa Kolarik of Wadsworth, Ohio, started working at home with her landscape architect husband, Stephen, she noticed he types loudly. "His computer is a gaming computer because of the work he does, so he has a mechanical keyboard," Kolarik said.
"It's so loud. The first day he was home, when he started typing, the first thing I said was 'Do you type that loudly all day?!'" Kolarik, who works as a digital marketing and sales manager, said her husband noticed she sighs more than she realized."He asks what's wrong every time I do it, and I never have any idea," she said. Amy Hietter, director of a nonprofit group in Springfield, Missouri, said her husband, John, likes to joke about her cluttered email inbox and love of caffeine.Hietter said a big key in this shift for herself and John, who works as an account manager for an IT company, is maintaining their sense of humor. "After listening to him on his conference calls, I joke with him. I never knew I was married to a 'let's circle back on that' guy," she said. Christopher Chan and his wife, Yvonne Chaung, of San Jose, California, both work for tech company Cisco and juggle work while balancing home life with 6-year-old twins. He said he works better under quieter conditions while his wife has no trouble with extra noise. "My wife ... seems to operate with an almost permanent cone of silence around her, and she is not fazed by all the noise around her," Chan said."The kids would be doing their learning online with lots of sound effects and narrators talking, and she would be in the same room working away." Chan said he can be a loud talker when taking calls."She has had to move herself to a different part of the house whenever I'm on conference calls," he said.Despite the quirks, many couples find perks to their new professional arrangements. Kolarik said she and her husband communicate more and show small signs of affection such as a random hug or kiss.Chan said the"silver lining" in this new environment is getting more time together as family."We try to schedule breaks in our work schedules to have lunch together as a family and if possible, go for a walk together as a family to break up the day." Although Hietter and her husband work for different companies, she said they behave more like colleagues."It very much feels like we have suddenly become co-workers sharing the break room, venting to each other, bouncing ideas off each other," she said."It's kind of cool."Sayers said it's important to separate home life from work as much as possible."You must find time for yourself to get away from the work part, even if it’s in a small way," he said."Go for a walk, sit on your patio, even take a drive. Just separate your living from your work." Kolarik agrees, noting their household keeps work stuff on the upstairs level while downstairs is for home."If you have to be in close quarters like we are, make sure you're set up effectively and in an organized way," she said.
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