On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC on Monday, November 5, 2012.
Divorce, especially those considered rather contentious or ones where children are involved, are often messy. Even in those uncontested divorces, where both spouses are able to easily come to agreements, there is still the emotional and financial toll that divorce takes. This in turn can end up negatively affecting the businesses where these soon-to-be ex-spouses are working.
According to several studies, those employees who are going through a divorce are more prone to mistakes, are more likely to project their anger on to colleagues and are just all around working more slowly. Those who are having marital problems, which are often signs of a divorce, are also more likely to be late to work, absent from work, and get hurt on the job.
These negatives, which affect not only the people going through the actual divorce but also their employers, is the reason why businesses are being pressured to do more in terms of pushing for change in the way divorce is handled in the United States.
Since divorce can often be expensive and time-consuming, with many times children having to deal with the fallout, the idea is that everyone — including businesses — should take more of a vested interest in pushing for serious changes to how family law issues are handled.
Of course, it’s important to remember that when it comes to certain family law issues, like child custody and child support, these are issues that also impact non-married couples who break up. These employees also tend to go through all of the same issues as those going through a divorce. Either way, employers are often negatively impacted.
But what do you think? How can businesses better support divorcing employees? Should companies be pushing for family law changes?
Source: The Huffington Post, “Your Divorce, Their Business?” Vicki Larson, Nov. 1, 2012
