Over the years, I've noticed that couples under great emotional stress experience problems in their careers in the months prior to filing for divorce. This manifests itself in tardiness, absenteeism, poor customer or employee relations, inattentiveness to duty, excessive personal calls and a general sense of malaise on the job. Conversely, once the divorce action is filed and proceedings are under way, many of those problems seem to melt away - there seems to be a renewed focus on personal development and attention to detail is restored. In fact, most employers in the Louisville area are more than willing to cooperate with the employee in the scheduling of appointments with court, attorney appointments, counseling and other expert employments. While my experience on this issue is anecdotal in nature, it is widespread enough to be seen as a trend for good reason - the organization finds itself with a better, less distracted employee.
It does take some work to make lemons from lemonade, however.
1. The divorce litigant should refrain from excessive discussion of personal issues with managers and fellow employees.
2. The divorce litigant should attempt to be considerate of the work cycle when making appointments with the attorney, any experts and/or counselors.
3. The divorce litigant should refrain from excessive communication with the spouse, the attorney and teen children during working periods.
These steps should be intuitive, but all too frequently, people under stress ignore common sense, and in the process, alienate managers and co-employees. The person who ignores common sense become the nightmare co-worker, the one who is constantly whining about their personal situation instead of focusing on the joint tasks at hand. In the end, that employee becomes damaged and disposable, a mere statistic on the rolls of the unemployed when that may not have been the intent at all.
In the end, the litigant who focuses on the important tasks and refrains from oversharing finds career stability.