My husband and I both work professionally, but in completely different fields. Recently, our companies started collaborating on a major project, and yesterday I found out that my husband is actually leading it.
It's a big project, and financially it's going to be very good for our family. I'm genuinely happy about that, and I'm proud of him. But at the same time, it means that for the next 4–5 months, I'm going to be working under him.
Our roles are also very different. I'll be working longer hours and handling a lot of the day to day work, while he'll mainly be involved in decision l l making, important meetings and meetings with clients. So even though we'll technically be working on the same project, he'll have authority over the work I'm doing.
And honestly, I'm finding that a little difficult to process.
I know my husband. I know he's not going to intentionally disrespect me or treat me badly. But I also know that when he's in a professional role, he can be very direct and demanding. There will probably be times when he has to tell me to change something, redo something, work longer, or do something differently.
Hearing those things from my husband is probably going to affect me differently than hearing them from another manager.
I love him very much and I have no problem with his success. This isn't about being threatened by him or thinking he shouldn't be my boss. It's more about the strange feeling of having the person I come home to every night suddenly having professional authority over me.
I think there's a small part of my ego that feels uncomfortable with it, even though I know that's probably something I need to separate from the actual situation.