Divorce can be a stressful experience, affecting many aspects of your life, including your work life. As reported in the Detroit Free Press, career experts suggest keeping divorce issues and work life separate.

Experts outline nine career tips:

1. Keep your divorce life private. Your personal life and divorce should be separate from your professional work so they are less likely to interfere with one another. Tina Tessina, a licensed psychotherapist, suggests that you “keep your personal life to yourself. That will make it much easier to leave your divorce stress out of the office.”
2. Separate personal and professional lives. Leave personal issues at the front doorstep and work-related matters at the office. Tessina suggests that “when you leave work, shut the work door on work problems and don’t take them home. If you compartmentalize like this, you’ll get some relief and your problems won’t overlap.”
3. Schedule divorce proceedings and court dates around work. Nancy Dreeben, a matrimonial and family attorney, defends that you shouldn’t have to miss more work than needed. “If there is a legitimate reason to put the case on the 3 p.m. calendar as opposed to the 9:30 a.m. calendar, a judge is likely to do so.”
4. Give advanced and fair notice when missing work. Court dates are generally arranged one month in advance. Give your employer a courteous and advanced notification.
5. Try settling your divorce without going to trial. “Taking time off for a trial will be devastating for you and your employer,” Dreeben notes. If the divorce goes to trial, she suggests scheduling it during your vacation time.
6. Don’t talk to your lawyer while at work. In keeping your personal and professional lives separate, talk to your divorce lawyer in a private space.
7. Don’t talk to your soon-to-be-ex at work. These conversations can be emotional and volatile. In keeping with separating your personal and professional lives, leave these conversations for personal time.
8. Use your work computer and office supplies for work-related matters only. Keep your personal matters in a personal space. If not, your hard drive at work could be seized for discovery purposes during the divorce process.
9. Allow yourself emotional breaks. Permit yourself to let-down emotionally periodically. Psychologist LeslieBeth Wish suggests cry breaks for “crying out your hurt rids your body of stress toxins.”

Source: Detroit Free Press

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 8:19 am and is filed under Divorce News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.