How To Help Your Spouse Cope With Work Stress

SKIP TO CONTENTHarvard Business Review LogoStress managementHow to Help Your Spouse Cope with Work Stress

by Rebecca Knight

August 20, 2018N Farnon/Getty Images

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Home is a sanctuary from work stress, right? Not always. Even if you are able to leave your projects and worries at the office, your spouse may have difficulty doing so — and that stress can rub off on you. How can you help your partner cope? What’s the best thing to say when your partner starts complaining — and what should you not say? Is there a way to help them see things differently? And how can you set boundaries so that home can be a haven again?

Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

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Read more on Stress management or related topics Health and behavioral science and Work-life balance

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