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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Eleanor Gordon-Smith

My wife works an impossible job with ridiculous hours. Home life is intolerable. What can I do?

‘You’d be surprised by how wide a knowledge asymmetry can sneak into a marriage. What you experience as an ever-present problem, she might experience very differently.’ Painting: The Proposal (1869) by John Pettie, R.A.
‘You’d be surprised by how wide a knowledge asymmetry can sneak into a marriage. What you experience as an ever-present problem, she may experience very differently.’ Painting: The Proposal (1869) by John Pettie, RA. Photograph: Christie's Images Ltd

My wife works for a large university in an administrative role. Over the past five years or so her responsibilities have grown and her staff team has shrunk to a point where it is clearly impossible for her to do the work required.

She works ridiculous hours in an attempt to achieve the impossible – which she can’t, which makes her miserable, stressed and bad-tempered. I love her deeply and I hate to see her so unhappy, but life with someone who alternates between snappy and tearful is awful, and her absolute refusal to do anything – flag the situation she’s in, see a doctor, anything – to improve things is deeply frustrating.

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