You might think that divorce only changes things in your home life. However, with all the stress and changes to the routines at home, divorce also affects your career as well. If you were not working before the divorce, you may suddenly find yourself in need of a job in order to support yourself. If you were employed before the divorce, changes to your home life could mean you need to cut back on hours or take a demotion in order to balance work and home. This is especially true if you have children who you will now be caring for on your own. All these changes can add to the stress of finding a new normal after divorce. Read on to learn how divorce affects your career and how you can deal with the changes.
Changing Priorities
Going through a divorce can be a full-time job all on its own. Between meeting with your attorney, court dates, locating important documents, meetings with tax advisors, and restructuring finances, it is a wonder you will be able to get anything else done. Throughout the divorce process you may find that you are having to use more and more of your PTO days from work in order to make it to these necessary appointments. You will need to make some adjustments to your priorities throughout. This is even more true if you also have children. You will need to find a balance between work, divorce proceedings, and family. Speak with your employer and be honest with them about the process. It is important that you are flexible and practical about what you can and cannot accomplish in a day, week, or month.
Changing Hours
During and after a divorce your finances will likely change. You may need to pay for your own residence now or have alimony or child support to consider. During the divorce you may need to cutback on hours in order to make it to all the meetings that we discussed previously. If you get custody of your children, you may need to cut hours in order to be able to drop them off and pick them up from school. If you were working part time before the divorce, you may need to increase your hours in order to fully support yourself and/or your children. There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to work adjustments after a divorce.
Stay-at-Home Parents
Many stay-at-home parents find themselves needing to reenter the workforce during and after the divorce. While spousal support may help, it will not be enough and it could be only temporary. Depending on how long it has been since you last had a job, it may take some time before you are able to find gainful employment. But this is especially critical if you will be caring for your children. Child support payments only go so far.
Stay Prepared
Whatever your situation may be, the earlier you can prepare yourself for it the better. Do not wait until the divorce is finalized to begin looking for employment. Do not delay finding appropriate childcare. And most importantly, do not be afraid to ask for help from those around you, especially in the early days when you are learning to find your footing through the changes.