On behalf of The Marks Law Firm, L.L.C posted in Divorce on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
For some St. Louis people who have gone through a divorce, not only does their marriage come to an end, but it threatens to take with it their careers, and their sense of who they are and what they can do. For others, a divorce can be liberating for their careers.
No longer do they have to pour their heart and soul into a troubled marriage. They pour their energies into a new business or a reinvention of a perhaps stagnant career.
One woman interviewed for a news story on divorce’s affects on careers said that she was a 19-year-old nurse when she met the doctor she would marry. After 20 years and four children, the couple’s marriage came undone.
“My biggest challenge was finding my identity in my career after my divorce. At a relatively late age, I had to figure out what to do for a living,” she said.
Now 50, she has in the years since the divorce followed her passion for animals and now owns a number of pet-related businesses, including an animal hospital.
“I’m going after my career gangbusters,” she said.
A family law mediator said that for many, a divorce is the best thing that can happen to their career.
“In the long run, divorce may ultimately prove to be a career booster,” she said. “When the focus is off the marriage, the focus can be on the career.”
Others, of course, struggle with the major changes divorce brings. Perhaps none are affected as much as those who have children and must share custody with their former spouse.
Some of them sometimes pass up promotions that would require relocation or travel not conducive to maintaining their custody arrangement.
The woman who owns the pet-related businesses said she tells her daughter that life and marriage aren’t always what we expect them to be.
“Marriage isn’t forever sometimes,” she told her daughter. “Be prepared.”
Source: SunSentinel.com, “Painful divorces can help or hurt careers,” July 15, 2012