A Wife Says She’s ‘Not Going Anywhere’ After Her Husband Was Laid Off From A Job Where He Worked 80 Hours A Week For 5 Years
Job loss often ends a marriage, but she's determined that theirs won't be one of them.
fizkes / Getty Images / Canva Pro Few things cause as much strain as job loss. Psychologists say getting fired or laid off can be nearly as stressful as a death in the family.
No surprise then that job loss can be just as challenging for a person's spouse and family, but one wife online is determined that her family won't be one of them.
Her husband was laid off from a job he devoted 80 hours a week to for 5 years.
It's becoming something of a sign of the times — people who were dedicated to their jobs and went above and beyond the call of duty suddenly find themselves unceremoniously kicked to the unemployment line.
Such was the case for Kari, a TikToker known as @hairykarimakeup, and her husband, who was out of the blue let go from a job he'd given far more than it seemed it was owed.
After five years of 80-hour weeks, Kari said in a video that the company ultimately viewed her husband as "just another number." It's a feeling all too many people can relate to these days.
She then listed all the ways he's so much more than that, especially as a father to two adoring kids. That doesn't make the crisis any easier, of course.
"I can't wait to be looking back on this time in the future," Kari wrote in the caption to her video. "Living it right now isn't the most fun. But we always get through it together."
Some online expected that she would divorce her husband, but she said she's 'not going anywhere.'
"I'm sure you will leave him for another man that makes money," one commenter wrote under Kari's video. "But he's a good father for sure."
That kind of presumptuous judgment towards a total stranger is unseemly and rude (and smacks of the obsession with "gold diggers" found among devotees of the misogynistic "manosphere" to boot).
But Kari wasn't even fazed by it. In response, she posted a series of photos of her and her husband with the caption, "I'm not going anywhere."
The statistics on how job loss affects a marriage are, in fact, bleak. But Kari said their marriage is built to last.
Weird misogynistic obsessions with gold-digging aside, there is plenty of reason to believe the hard times Kari and her husband have fallen on might take a toll on their partnership.
Statistics vary from study to study, but all show that getting laid off or fired greatly increases the chances that a couple will split. One study found that men without full-time jobs were 33% more likely to divorce. Others have found the impact to be more than twice that at 68%.
This is not necessarily because women are greedy like a certain TikTok commenter seems to believe, but rather, according to Ohio State University researchers, due to "the psychological damage of job loss and the economic strain of losing a share of the household income."
In short, job losses place enormous stress on everyone in the household and can initiate a long grieving process similar to that which follows a death. In essence, it can become a mental health issue on top of a financial one, and that can make it hard for a marriage to endure.
But Kari said that while she understands how a job loss could be the death knell in a relationship, she and her husband's marriage has a solid foundation she's certain will withstand the challenges they now face.
"I wonder what the statistic is for people who have really healthy marriages and someone loses their job," she mused, "because I just don't see that."
For now, she and her husband are enjoying having more time together — as are their two children, who are overjoyed to have their dad around all day. He's been able to help around the house, do school pick-ups, and do all sorts of things he often had to skip for work.
It can't be easy, but they're making it work and embracing the silver lining while they can. They'll surely be the better for it in the long run.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.