What Happens In The Bedroom Impacts The Board Room: “Relationship Education” Workshop For Businesses Launched

Companies spend thousands on employee "training," but an employee who comes to work weighed down by a flight with their mate is going to perform poorly no matter how good their job skills are. "Relationships: Roles, Rumors & Real Life," a workshop for the business setting, pro-actively attacks this problem.

“Relationships: Roles, Rumors and Real Life,” a workshop implemented in the work setting for employees and employers to improve their relationships on the homefront, is a newly-launched atypical vehicle to improve a company’s performance. The program, designed by Sheryl Kurland, speaker, marriage educator and author of "Everlasting Matrimony: Pearls Of Wisdom From Couples Married 50 Years Or More," addresses the growing trend for corporate leaders to recognize the impact of bad relationships, bad marriages and divorce on the bottom line.

“Business leaders have been quick to invest in employee training programs such as ‘time management skills’ and ‘quality improvement,’ but they are now beginning to realize that any positive gain in those lessons may be eclipsed by the negative affect of an employee who comes to work angry or stressed due to a miserable relationship with their spouse/significant other,” said Ms. Kurland. “Almost everyone who works can identify with the feelings associated with leaving home to head to work with either getting the door slammed in your face or sharing a big goodbye hug with your spouse/significant other. Throughout the day, these feelings permeate onto everyone with whom the employee comes in contact and everything he/she does.”

Conflict on the homefront is the silent killer of Corporate America’s bottom line. In its 2007 research report “Marriage and Family Wellness: Corporate America's Business?,” the Marriage CoMission estimated that U.S. companies lose $6 billion annually due to lost productivity stemming from bad marriages, divorce and relationship problems. The report also cited that “presenteeism,” a state in which an employee is physically present, but mentally disengaged, is on the rise.

“Relationships: Roles, Rumors and Real Life” is a vehicle for management to pro-actively help employees as well as themselves improve their personal relationships so that their work performance is peak performance. The seminar can be presented in a variety of formats, such as Lunch & Learn, corporate retreats, and before- or after-hours.

Program content is based entirely on Ms. Kurland’s “real-life” research interviewing 75 couples married 50-plus years, husbands and wives interviewed separately, for her "Everlasting Matrimony" book (www.EverlastingMatrimony.com); the book has been heralded by Dr. Laura Schlesinger, Sally Jessy Raphaël and Leeza Gibbons, and earned accolades from media across the country. “The uniqueness of the presentation is it’s 100% based on information from the voices of experience, people who’ve walked-the-walk and talked-the-talk in terms of building successful relationships,” said Ms. Kurland. “’Relationships: Roles, Rumors and Real Life’” is beneficial to everyone – single, married, divorced or any other relationship status, as well as educational, interactive and entertaining.”