What's it like working with your Spouse?
One of the most asked questions we get is, “What’s it like working together?” Bob and I have worked together at BPI since August, 2014. It seems like we’ve always worked together, but it’s only been for the past five plus years. Before joining BPI full time, I worked long hours as an educator. I was a teacher, and then an administrator for a couple of private schools. Long hours were the norm for both of us. During those years, we would talk every day at lunch and fill each other in on our day. Whoever got home first would make dinner. We cherished our time together since we didn’t have much of it.
Now, we still work long hours. The difference is that we both work for BPI. We see much more of each other just due to proximity and will steal the occasional hug. We both have our own spaces at the office, and at home, too, for work.
My typing tends to drive Bob crazy. I learned way, way back in high school how to touch type – and I’m fairly fast. He still does the two-finger thing and it takes a little longer. Maybe I pound the keys too much? Anyway, it’s not an issue when we’re in the office since the distance between our offices is much farther than at home. I have to shut the office door so he doesn’t hear me in the kitchen.
A fabulous perk of working together is tea. I’m a tea drinker. All day, every day – even in the summer – I drink tea. When I’m working on a deadline (tax returns, payroll, etc.), Bob will surprise me with a piping hot mug of tea. It just appears when I need it most! That happens with lunch and dinner, too. It’s almost a silent communication thing between us. One will be feeling hunger pangs and the next thing that happens is a snack appears nearby. No other co-worker has done that for me!
Maybe the reason we work so well together is because we both know just how hard the other is working and the stresses and challenges the other faces. We’re able to bounce ideas off of each other and talk each other off the ledge with complete understanding of what put the other there in the first place.
We don’t always agree about how things should be done. We didn’t always agree on how to raise our children or how to handle things in our personal lives. That’s always a problem with two stubborn people. Over the years, however, we’ve learned to listen to the other with fairly open minds…and then I still tend to get my way.
Thinking about the original question, “What’s it like working together?”, I think my response will now be that I can’t imagine NOT working together. We enjoy each other’s company and will always choose to spend our time together. We’re just so blessed that we can share this part of our lives during a time in our lives when our children are adults and raising their own families. Working together allows us the freedom and opportunity to visit our family when we want – and when they need us. We’re at a phenomenal place in our lives and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
-Estelle LaFleur