Seen and Heard

Your Husband, Your Employee?

Would you give him a job?

-Julie Ryan Evans

Good employees can be hard to come by, so who could be better to hire than the person you know, trust and love the best - your husband. Right?

Or not ...

In a recent article, the New York Times interviewed various couples in which the husband works at a company his wife runs. The article states, "While there is no data on the number of such companies, women were the majority owners of 7.7 million privately held firms at the end of 2006, up 42.3 percent from 10 years earlier, according to the Center for Women's Business Research."

They go on to speak with the couples, many of whom are making such situations work ... and a few for whom it hasn't worked out as well.

My first instinct upon reading the article was a little bit of annoyance - seriously, in this day and age, should it really be that big a deal if a husband works for his wife? If she's smart and savvy enough to create a multimillion dollar company, why wouldn't her husband want to work there, as well, and build a family business?

But I guess there's that little thing called an ego. They quoted one psychologist who said, "A wife's fear of making her husband feel emasculated in the workplace is a real consideration."

Also quoted in the article is Laura Colin, who ran a family business with her husband, Larry; the couple coauthored Family Inc., a study of family businesses. "Men and women are made differently, and men generally - it is the testosterone thing -are more compelled to dominate and get credit than women are," she said. "I think that women are more team-oriented and will try to focus on the goal."

On the flip side, what if, as the business owner, you find that your husband's talents and work ethic aren't necessarily up to your standards? Do you promote someone else over him? Give him a poor review? Or - gasp! - fire him?

So sure there's some potential fodder fights in these arrangements, but is it really that different from the "CEO of the household" role many women serve in - even if they don't bank a penny for it?

We assign duties (hello, honey-do lists) and we plan the events; most wives I know are in charge of the finances and acquisitions (grocery shopping, clothing purchases, etc.). We make hiring decisions (babysitters, repairmen, etc.), and, of course, we have to deal with our husband's delicate ego along the way. Don't we work to make him feel like he has some say in most decisions (even if we've already made them) and let him make some (those we don't really care about) all by himself?

So maybe all those female CEOs need to do is to visit some veteran wives, who can warn them of potential landmines (never question his manhood, no matter how angry you are) ... and when all else fails, remind them that baked goods do wonders for soothing hurt feelings and getting your husband to do what you want.

If you ran a company, would you hire your husband?