To ask what surprising thing you have learnt about the work habits of your partner/dh/during lockdown

[Achangeagain1]

Working alongside dh has been pretty ok, but we have both realised that our work long styles are not “aligned” to say the least.

Never knew that dh is a stickler for a “to do list”. He didn’t realise that I, in fact repeat pretty much the same thing over and over to different people all day long!
He’s also a bit surprised by how much coffee I drink in the morning (don’t touch it after 1pm so he’s never noticed.) am sure there’s loads more.

What had surprised you?

The amount of coffee DH drinks! No wonder he's a poor sleeper, he's on around ten cups a day.

How many seemingly pointless meetings he has, every tiny decision seems to require a thirty minute telecon to discuss the progress of reaching the actual decision then there are several follow up telecoms to discuss problems with the decision before one final telecon where they decide to tell all the underlings to basically suck it up as the decision is final.

That he and his work bestie are the office chatter boxes. From 9.01am until 4.59pm they are constantly texting each other, facetiming, and emailing with nonstop talk about work, their colleagues, meetings, TV they watched, PS4 games. They are both somehow the highest performing member of their respective teams so maybe their output is fueled by conversation but Jesus fucking Christ if I hear "mate, mate, did you seeeeee the email from Jez?" one more time I'm going to cry.

That DH gets ridiculously stressed during the working day & that his Line Manager is a sarcastic abusive illiterate bitch. The two things may be linked.

@CoffeeRunner oh that must be tough actually. I’d hate to be party to knowing dh had an arsehole manager or something like that.

That DH, despite working really hard, being very well thought of and having won numerous awards, STILL seems to think he's going to get fired over any minor cockup / staff shuffle etc.

That my husband is an absolute slogger. Always knew he was a hard worker, but only during WFH have I realised just how much he does and how stressful his job is. Much respect here.

That DH wasn't exaggerating when he said that one of his colleagues constantly wanders into his classroom to talk at him every time he has a free or is doing some marking after school - he's now ringing DH for no reason daily instead!

I think DH has learned that I have a lot of pointless meetings and also how much more endemic wanky business speak is in universities compared to schools. He has also learned that I wasn't exaggerating when I said that people are quite often horrible to me (my team/my role, not me personally) at work! I got off one meeting and DH just looked at me and said 'but what was that dickhead's actual problem?' which at least cheered me up!

My daughter thinks I spend 5 hours a day on teams meeting, mainly with my boss (some days I do)

My husband has learned quite how hard I work for my money.

I have learned that my husband has no hobbies and is bored when not working (but not bored enough to do any housework!)

How hard he works and how stressful his job is. He'll be on a Teams call and his work phone will ring x 100 times in a single day; there are not enough hours to do his job. I have a lot more sympathy for how stressed and tired he can get. My position is more senior and better paid, but I don't work half as hard (different industry).

DH is crap at time management and will just work and work and work. He’s also not all that IT literate (these may be linked). I’ve offered to help him get some IT solutions in place but he then accuse me of treating him like he’s thick

He never moans though, credit to him. I am just a really efficient worker and churn things at a rate of knots so he couldn’t be more different!

How little work he does, he spends a lot of time wandering into my office for a chat. It's driving me crazy

That he has to get up and wander around every hour and he can't do this without a running commentary!

@TW2013 I fear I’m a bit like that!

I’ve enjoyed seeing how good my DH is at work, how calm and efficient. I’ve also realised that he puts on a smart top for video calls but keeps on his comfy jeans - an approach that I wholeheartedly approve!

DH is an extremely loud and aggressive typist 😂😂
He is very calm whilst being yelled at on the phone.
His boss is even more irritating than I could ever have imagined possible!
He makes a lot of coffee but hardly drinks any of them.
He doesn't send emails, he fires them over 😂

Oh and he growls every time his phone rings - and it rings constantly 😂

This is a lovely thread, stories of couples appreciating the tribulations and joys of parts of each other's lives they were rarely party to pre-lockdown!

@Toothsil I used to be a loud typist - I think it’s where I learnt on a typewriter (which makes me sound far older than I am- we just happened to have one at home when I was a kid).

That DH only
Changes his underwear after a shower. 🤢

So when he goes into the office he showers every day. Usually I wash 7 pairs of boxers in the weekly wash. At the moment I am washing 2 pairs a week. 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

1. Breathing very loudly through all tasks requiring concentration.

1. Sighing and exclaiming under breath "oh for fucks sake" whenever something of no importance happens in order to instigate a conversation about what just didn't happen.

1. "I might make a sandwich in a minute" to indicate hunger in the hope that food will arrive from the auto-kitchen.

1. Walking around the house in a purposeful manner while not actually doing anything at all.

1. Asking if there is anything he can do to help, while not doing anything to help.

1. Kill me.

I've noticed fewer pairs of pants in the wash, too, @Nibblingoncrumpets, but not as few as 2 pairs a week!

I hadn't realised that DP is a real grafter at work. Shame he's such a lazy fucker at home.

That DP is utterly shit at anything involving organisation and admin.

He’s self-employed and needs to arrange demanding clients into each week. He’s stretched to the max and already working 6 days a week to fit them all in but he does not have a clue how to efficiently organise his time. Last night he spent an hour staring at the empty timetable for next week expecting it all to magically come together.

I am ridiculously organised and my life is run off multiple spreadsheets so it kills me to see his lack of organisational skills! I do genuinely wonder sometimes whether I should go part time and take over his admin for him.

@Nibblingoncrumpets same here!! I caught him Febreezing his chair the other day 😂

@LakieLady and @Toothsil

Aahhhhh, wonderful! It’s not just my DH who is a horribly dirty bastard. My friends and I actually have a weekly game on Sunday, laundry day, “guess how many pairs in today?”

It’s fantastic. And grim.

@AmandaHoldensLips

Your post really made me chuckle. I’m pleased you 3 have come along as I posted before reading the thread and suddenly realised everyone was posting loving and kind comments 😂🙈

Thos thread is brilliant and has both dh and I in stitches.

Dh realised what a bitch my boss was and how stressful my job was, leading to anxiety. It has also lead to me.resigning and getting g a new job.

I hear you @Turnedouttoes re admin and organisation for DH. Same for my DH! Plus all the pointless meeting calls. So much time wasted and so much repeated to each group.

I've realised how little my DH does at work. It came as a surprise as he's always tired and stressed and asking me to let him off home stuff as a result. He runs out of time because he spends hours a day chatting to people. To the point I can tell they are trying to get him off the phone.

It's driving me insane and I don't think he realises that if he worked for me, I'd sack him!!