Woman Considers Divorce After Husband Pursues 'Dream Job' That Could Ruin Her

Updated September 8, 2021

OK, picture this: Somebody offers you everything you've ever wanted but you know that if you accept it, it will absolutely make someone else's life worse.

And I'm not even saying this is a The Box situation where pushing the button on a box will enrich you at the cost of harming someone you've never met. This is the person that — for the sake of argument — you've decided you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Are you going to take that deal or are you going to decide that some things in life are more important than even this seemingly golden opportunity?

That question is at the heart of one woman's recent dilemma that could genuinely lead to her divorce.

When a woman brought her problem to Reddit's r/AmITheAsshole community, she explained that she's her family's breadwinner after earning multiple degrees in a highly specialized field.

NBC via Twitter

As she explained, this led to a position that earns her over $200,000 a year, has the potential for more, and hasn't been affected by the pandemic.

Her husband — who has a degree and work history with much broader applications — had quit his job shortly before the pandemic and spent months applying for others until he recently landed an interview at a company she can't name.

This was described as his dream job in "almost every imaginable way" and would likely earn him a salary of $65,000 a year.

All of that sounds great, right? Unfortunately, it turns out that accepting this dream job is almost guaranteed to destroy her entire career.

Reddit | spazcadetkt

Apparently, this company is her firm's direct competitor in a small, secretive field and neither her company nor their clients would trust her if her spouse took on a job with this big rival.

As she put it, "I wouldn’t be able to get a job in the industry forever. I know this sounds like an exaggeration, but I promise you, it absolutely is not."

Again, she wasn't able to name what these companies do but she said the dilemma was like, "if I worked in protecting the privacy of celebrities, and he worked for TMZ."

But despite the implications to her career and the fact that the couple wouldn't be able to live in their city with just his income, he became "extremely angry" when she said he needed to turn the job down.

Reddit | [deleted]

He told her she was selfish and only cared about money, to which she said she would support him if he went back to school or waited out unemployment for a while to find a job in any other field.

However, he continued the interview process behind her back and is poised to accept an offer from the rival company. When pressed on this, he said his career needs to take priority and that she's not being a supportive wife.

Reddit | LlBERTY

So now she's given him two options: decline the offer with her present, or accept it and move out. From there, she would pay for a hotel room for him for two weeks and they would begin divorce proceedings.

While this may seem like an extreme move, the response the woman received seemed to suggest that most people agreed with it and that a divorce could be inevitable.

As one user said, "Some are saying you've decided your job is important than your husband. They're ignoring that he seems to have decided a job offer is more important than your entire career."

Another person pointed out that part of the company's problem with him taking this job concerns their inability to trust him with his wife's sensitive documents.

And in continuing to interview with this company behind her back, he seemed to confirm their reasons not to trust him.

Some even said they hadn't expected to agree with her side of the story until she actually laid out the situation. But regardless of what happens, they seemed to think she's taking the right steps here.

h/t: Reddit | ThrowRa67129ka90ma

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