Wedded to Work: Saving Your Marriage From a Demanding Job

Oct. 15, 2007 Special to ABCNEWS.com — -- Alan Meltzer told a client seven years ago that if it ever took him longer than two hours to respond to an e-mail between 5:30 in the morning and 10 at night, he'd give $5,000 to the charity of the client's choice. Meltzer, the chief executive of The Meltzer Group, a Bethesda, Md.-based insurance brokerage firm, still has the account and never had to pay off the bet.

Great for his client. Not so hot for his wife. "I was lonely a lot," says Amy Meltzer, who says she's basically raised their four kids. "I forged such a deep bond with my children that sometime when he was home it was weird. He almost wasn't part of our unit."

Despite this, Meltzer and his wife beat the odds, staying married 29 years. On average, couples in which one partner is a workaholic divorce at twice the average rate, according to a 1999 study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Bryan Robinson.

Click here for tips on surviving a workaholic spouse at our partner site, Forbes.com.

"In workaholic marriages, there's more marital estrangement; couples are emotionally distant from each other; and there are often thoughts of separation and divorce," says Robinson, author of Chained to the Desk: A Guidebook for Workaholics, Their Partners and Children, and the Clinicians Who Treat Them.

Robinson developed a 25-question test to distinguish workaholics from hard workers. Among his findings: While workaholics on average spend 10 hours more than non-workaholics on the job, time isn't the appropriate barometer. Mindset is. "The workaholic is on the ski slopes dreaming about getting back to work," says Robinson. "The hard worker is in the office dreaming about being on the ski slopes."

Spouses can help. To heal family and relationship angst caused by your mate's unhealthy addiction to work, Robinson says you've got to send a much-needed wakeup call. Some tricks: Go to the party alone rather than waiting. Take the children to the zoo at the time you planned.

Also helpful: Make sure time away from work is time away from work, says Jess Alberts, a professor of human communication at Arizona State University. "People who live highly structured lives need to make appointments for time off," she says. However little time it is, it's important to plan for it. "There's a huge danger that, if you don't spend downtime with partners and children, relationships will fade." Rituals like a Friday night date also help.