Does Marriage/Relationship Education And Coaching Belong In Corporate America?

This might seem like an odd question. But it is one that has been asked quite frequently these days around the water cooler.. or is it in the coffee break room?  The Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education says YES, and many Marriage guru's agree! It just does not make sense that what goes on in an employees home life doesn't effect the company's bottom line. For instance, John Smith of Incos Inc. is arguing with his wife more and more these days and has been flirting with the possibility of an extra marital affair. He remembered noticing Jane Jones "giving him the eye."  Over time, because John works closely with Jane everyday and has been increasingly getting "sick" of the fights at home, he grows the courage to ask Jane to go for a happy hour drink after work. What happens next is loosing YOU and YOUR COMPANY tremendous profits. Employees happen to also be human beings.. I know I know.. it's a BIG shock, but it's true! .. And humans talk... to other humans! Rumors start and now everyone in the office knows about John and Jane's affair. Top management gets involved and before you know it a whole department is suffering because John didn't have the skills to communicate with his wife and work on his marriage instead of working on Jane. Quick side bar: Jane is no angel in this either, but it's not her fault, her husband is a famous musician and she struggles when he is away traveling with his band.

This is a true story and it cost a very well known very prestigious corporation hundreds of thousands of dollars. You're probably thinking that sounds a bit inflated. I assure you that these kinds of shenanigans with employees personal lives dipping the companies pockets happens everyday all year long. The reason why it costs so much is because when an employee gets divorced, they are coming in late or not coming in at all, when they are in, their minds are on their divorce or painful issues they don't know how to deal with alone. They are stressed out because of all the lies they have to tell to maintain their affair and they ARE talking to other employees about their problems on the companies dime. It just makes sense for CEO's and Presidents to actually care about what is going in their employees world because then they will then have the opportunity to bridge the gap between the employees contribution and the companies bottom line.

Some of the most successful progressive corporations are including marriage and relationship education into their benefits packages and offering lunch and learn seminars for employees that think they could benefit from learning some skills that will help them with their marriage and relationships. The more companies that jump on this bandwagon, the more people that will benefit monetarily and personally.

To find out how much an employee's divorce will cast your company go here:

http://www.marriagecomission.com/files/Cost of Divorce Worksheet, blank.xls

For more information on this topic go to:

http://www.marriagecomission.com/files/Marriage CoMission--2007 Corporate Sector Summit Update--4 22 2008.ppt