Couples working at home together share their surprise discoveries about their partners

A few months ago, you worked alongside fussy Angela from Marketing and annoying Ted from Admin. Now, your new co-worker in this surreal new world is your spouse.

In the real sense, it may sound ideal, but as many couples confess its anything but quaint.

Some couples are surprised to learn that their partners are in charge of an entire department at their places of work while others are amused or inspired by how their partners work.

How do you work with your significant other without losing it? We spoke to some couples.

Moses Odumbe, 35, a music director is married to Joan Mero, 29, a Human Resource (HR) Officer. They are both working from home.

Joan says: "I honestly feel like I will miss working from home when normalcy resumes. While working from home with my husband is refreshing since I get to see him more often, we don't work next to each other. We work from different rooms and in shifts.

My nature of work involves making and receiving many conference calls. It is, therefore, best for me to be in a quiet room to avoid any distractions especially from our daughter.

Currently, we don't have a nanny, so we work in shifts. When I'm taking the calls from my colleagues, he is usually with the baby and vice versa.

I am an early bird so I get most of my work done before noon and embark on house chores and other activities such as preparing meals, you know, taking care of the family.

Although working from home has made my work schedule more flexible, I still wake up early. I have found that I am most productive during the first part of the day.

I wake up at 6am, prepare breakfast, and our baby's food then I settle down at my home working station from 7 am to 9 am. Then take a break to feed the baby and resume from 11 am to 1 pm when I relieve my husband from babysitting. But it is not always smooth, sometimes I get urgent job requests that eat into his working time and other times I have to extend my shift which interferes with his. I know it can be inconvenient.

My husband sometimes teaches music, plays the guitar and the keyboard. Watching him teach kids online has made me realise how patient he is. I have signed up for his keyboard classes."

Odumbe says: "It was exhilarating when my wife joined me in working from home. Now, we have a lot of time to spend together especially during meal breaks which is the only time we get to catch up.

I do not work during weekends, neither does my wife and I only go to the office on Thursdays.

Working from home is largely fulfilling because you are always a room away from your family and, it instills in one a sense of time-consciousness to remain productive. I think it is working well for us. Our work and babysitting shifts are going on perfectly.

So far, what I like most is that we get to make major decisions easier and faster.

I closely watch her react to various situations differently. I have noted that she now shares issues openly and intimately, thanks to my encouragement. I usually tell her to speak her mind and not to compartmentalise urgent concerns that can be dealt with on spot.

On the career prospect; she is an HR expert while I am a musician. In this period of zoom and teleconferencing, she has been teaching me to prepare and dress for various interviews. She also teaches me how to use G-suite which without her, I doubt I would have mastered."

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Joseph Kamau, 45, a high school teacher and Serah Njeri, 39, Psychologist, are currently working from home

Joseph says: "Until the government encouraged employers to allow staff to work from home, it was unimaginable that one day we would be working next to each other.

Working next to my spouse is punctuated with an air of uneasiness but I am learning to adjust.

I had never been to her office to understand her style of working. Granted, counseling is done in private.

Even now that she is working from home, she is mostly occupied dealing with her clients while for my case, my work is dependent on the availability of students and their willingness to take up assignments because I have limited control over them.

For the period I have seen her work, I have realised that she is passionate about her work more than I thought. She can halt other endeavours and home chores to focus on her clients. Initially, that was not going well with me but I am getting to learn more about the nature of her work.At times she is in a dark mood while working, other times she's excited. But, she is a psychologist, handling different types of clients so I understand the mood swings."

Serah says: "I am greatly inconvenienced working from home since my job demands that the confidentiality of clients is upheld. And, balancing my time to give my husband quality time is sort of an extreme sport. I now have to see fewer clients and juggle family time and make my husband understand the urgency of attending to my clients in confidence. I am glad he does not intrude.

As much as I would wish to work next to him, I can't because that would compromise the privacy of my clients and lower my professional standards.

Therefore, we do not work concurrently. Partly because he works fewer hours and his work does not require him to work daily.

His work at the moment involves sending assignments and class notes to students whose parents have smartphones. Working from home with him has made me realise how charming he is and how worried he is of our future.

Philip Namasaka, 41, Fitness Professional and Catherine Kilonzo, 40, a dance and fitness professional at Feel Fitness Center are both working from home

Philip says: "We are in the same profession and are not new to the idea of working close to each other. However, we are newbies to the idea of working from home.

Before Covid-19 happened, we worked under tight and strict schedules within the premises of our facility. But, despite being away from our facility, technology has enabled us to stay connected with our clients. However, the model of the business and the clients' engagement has changed. We now do workouts videos from our home and share online with the clients who log in to the website or watch on Facebook Live platform.

We stick to bodyweight moves and creative equipment that can be found in the home like towels, broomstick, water bottles, and within the available space at home. Our children too are engaged during the workout, and this makes it fun. It is our way of delivering customised family-friendly packages to our clients.

Working together, especially from home, is exciting and has served to bring us together as a family.

We call or send messages to check on our clients' progress. Some are quick to update us on their progress.

The only challenge we have is, since we cannot be close to the clients, we can never be sure that everyone is fully participating. However, we have received positive feedback from a majority who even request specific workouts and that is quite rewarding.

Now that we are both working from home, we get to do farm duties together after our workouts. The flexibility of our schedule at home has been a big advantage.

I notice the ease with which my wife pulls the family and work professional engagements and it amazes me how she does it so effortlessly as though everything is normal and operating at optimum. How she strikes the balance is incredible."

Catherine says: "I have been a trainer since 2002. Since fitness brought my husband and me together, we discovered that we have a similar purpose and passions, and so we set up a Fitness Centre so we could work together.

My husband runs our business as a director and I as the trainer. Besides working together, we also create time for family bonding. Working from home with him is great, I now see him more often than at the fitness centre.

We have made it a routine to begin our workout at 10 am to accommodate our clients who are not early birds. I have discovered that he does not like to idle. So, at times he assists in the online training of our morning session clients.

Our job is exhausting, so my husband takes an afternoon siesta. When he is not resting, we read together. Working from home has allowed us to bond with our kids.

My relationship with my husband during this period has now gone beyond the bonds of friendship and relationship. We now understand that we share common interests like outdoor exercises which we previously never knew.

I am stunned by his consistency and determination to help our clients stay active during this crisis. I am awed by how he balances fatherhood and creates time for me. So far, he has done well. Our highlight so far is being featured in a hit song song "Salanga" by Pastor Timothy .

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