Working on Your Marriage -- at Work

by Rachel Emma Silverman
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
provided by: WSJ Online

People often complain they are married to their jobs. Now, some companies are helping employees work on their marriages, on the job.

A small but growing number of companies have implemented training programs designed to help employees strengthen their marriages or other personal relationships. Some companies are motivated by religious values to encourage strong marriages and families. But now, amid evidence that divorce and relationship stress can make workers less efficient, more companies have begun offering marriage training programs with an eye to keeping their businesses running more smoothly and profitably.

...

Taking Marriage Training Classes

After an executive at Gregg Appliances Inc., an appliance and electronics retail chain based in Indianapolis, became concerned that workers were being unproductive or leaving the company because of marital stresses, the firm began sponsoring marriage training classes at corporate retreats in Florida for its general managers and their spouses. This year's session, which focused on finances, featured a version of the "Newlywed Game," so couples could gauge how well they really knew each other's financial habits.

...

"Unhappily Married Employees Decrease Profitability"

"Unhappily married employees decrease profitability. Those in failing relationships can hurt a company's bottom line, through higher distractions and absences, higher health-care costs and increased stress," says Matthew Turvey, a psychologist and co-author of the report.

...

Workplace Marriage Programs Can Be Controversial

Workplace marriage programs can be controversial. Tim Gardner, who runs the Marriage Institute near Indianapolis, says several companies he has approached have been cool to his offers to teach courses because they fear marriage training programs could discriminate against single or divorced employees, or gay couples. Other companies say they have no business intruding in workers' personal lives.

Marriage trainers say their courses aren't marriage counseling, but courses that teach real skills, such as how to listen and communicate more effectively, and how to defuse disagreements before they escalate into full-blown conflicts.

"We're not talking about getting everyone in a hot tub and sharing all their problems," says Dr. Gardner. "It's a skills-based set that benefits all sides."

More: http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/103119/Working-on-Your-Marriage-at-Work

over losing a position to outsourcing or downsizing, marriages would be a bit more blissful.

through thick and thin.

You can't train that into people, it's an intricate part of the temperamental qualities that they are inherently blessed with.

My two older brothers are wonderful men but each has been married three times. I've tried to convey to my younger-older brother's latest girlfriend that he just gets "easily bored" and there's not much she can do. My heart goes out to women who NEED their husbands/boyfriends to change, but unfortunately, you get "the package" that you received on the day of the wedding.

What has kept my husband and myself together is mainly admiration of each other's (very different) personality and a desire to stay committed as a life partner. That does NOT make us better than single people or those who choose divorce. We are just DIFFERENT - perhaps we just got lucky and won the LOTTO of complementary personalities the first go round.

My point: Martial longevity is a complex phenomenon ... something that you can not train-into individual marriage partners. :shrug:

You will express love for your spouse on a regular basis! Failure to do so will be added to your annual ratings report.

Meh, I'm probably being overly critical. I can see some good coming from this assuming it was always a voluntary program.