Couples That Work

Finding fulfillment in both love and work isn''t easy--but it''s possible.

The majority of couples today are two-career couples. As anyone who''s part of such a relationship knows, this presents big challenges. Yet most advice for two-career couples fails because it treats the challenges as a zero-sum game in which one partner''s gain is the other’s loss. This pits partner against partner and frames solutions in the language of sacrifice and trade-offs.

This book is different. In Couples That Work, INSEAD professor Jennifer Petriglieri shifts away from conventional, one-size-fits-all solutions for two-career couples and instead focuses on how couples can tackle and resolve the challenges they will face throughout their lives--together. She identifies three key phases of exploration and personal growth in every couple''s work-life journey, showing how couples must navigate these together in order to strengthen their bond. Each phase is crystallized with a question:

• How can we make this work? The first phase focuses on the logistics of combining two busy lives and often involves the demands of young children.
• What do we really want? In the second phase, couples learn to navigate their midlife crises in ways that allow each partner to continue to feel happy and fulfilled.
• Who are we now? With careers winding down and kids grown up, this last phase offers new freedoms--and uncertainties.

Based on a five-year research project including interviews with couples from over thirty countries--from executives to entrepreneurs and from twentysomething newlyweds to two-career grandparents--Couples That Work is filled with vivid real-life stories as well as keen analytical insights. There are also engaging exercises and activities designed to help couples develop their own unique answers to that most pressing question: How can we successfully combine love and work?