History Main / MarriedToTheJob

* Knuckles from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' has complained about his boring and lone life guarding the Master Emerald, but he takes his duty extremely seriously.

'''The Character Performs a Job That is Just That Important'''. More often than not, the complaining spouse's position is a little less clear-cut and righteous. While they might have a good point about their loved one's spending too much time at work having a negative impact on their marriage/relationship, the fact is that their loved one does a job that '''is''' demanding and their partner really does need to put in all that time at work in order to effectively do their job. This is TruthInTelevision, especially if the job is a profession that involves saving human lives, like a police officer, firefighter, paramedic, doctor, heart surgeon, and more, or maintaining important infrastructure like in IT or transportations, in which case people really ''do'' need to work long hours, be on call 24-7, and/or expose themselves to dangerous situations, and lives genuinely ''can'' be lost if they aren't attentive to their work to a high degree, even if this means they have to neglect their relationships or families. In these situations (whether the writer intended it or not), the complaining spouse may come across as selfish, whiny, and unfairly demanding, especially if it should have been obvious from the start of the relationship that their loved one's job was going to demand a large portion of their time.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRG5vQCldIk&t=2m45s In the Season 2 Sneak Peek Clip,]] Armand and Louis de Pointe du Lac discover from [[{{Telepathy}} psychically glimpsing at Daniel Molloy's memories]] that in 1985, the latter cared more about working on his novel than his family -- he was indifferent when his first wife Alice announced to him that she was pregnant.

'''Daniel''': [[UnusualEuphemism The fishing rod in the head]] again?\\

* Michael Westen in ''Series/BurnNotice''. Specifically, he's married to being a spy and the personal belief he was doing good work as one, and his conflict throughout the show is trying to get back in after being unjustly burned. [[DeconstructedTrope However]], it's pointed out many times by his friends and members of the organization that burned him that for all Michael loved the job, the job never really loved him back, and it was only ''after'' he was burned that his frankly shitty personal life finally started to get better and he confronted those issues head-on amidst trying to get back in. [[spoiler:Ultimately, he gets burned again, but he's fine with that.]]

* In ''VideoGame/PotionPermit'', Osman is dedicated to his job as the Chief of Police, but beneath his ToughLeaderFacade, he carries a heavy burden to the community and his family, especially his wife Cassandra. He also [[DrowningMySorrows used to drink to try escaping his problems]], while Cassandra doesn't let him know how difficult working without him is because she thinks that might distract him from his duties.