One Couple's Division of Labor
Now that he's 64, David Allen has cut back on work. These days he spends about 40 hours a week on the clock rather than 60. Like most small-business owners, he has no plans to slow down anytime soon. But for him, work isn't an escape from home life: Allen shares an office, and a business, with his wife, Marie.
David started Allen Associates, a company that makes floral industry products such as corsage magnets, in 1962. When he and Marie married in 1987, she started up a sales and marketing division of the company. Working side by side means the Allens spend a lot of time together, but the couple's marriage is actually stronger for it. "In some ways it makes life easier," says Marie. "It lets me have more freedom--him too."
The Allens first met in high school but didn't marry until almost two decades later, after both had left previous marriages. By then, David's manufacturing business was already up and running. When he married Marie, she had been working in sales at another company but decided to start a sales division of his firm so that he could distribute the products he made.
While the Allens work in the same office, they technically run two separate companies, something that smooths the relationship. "There are areas she doesn't step into and areas I don't step into," says David. "We very seldom talk about work at home."
This story appears in the June 12, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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