At my husband's first job he worked roughly 14 hours every day. He came home, had dinner, and fell immediately asleep to get up and do it again. The company he worked for is notorious for burning out fresh college grads by forcing them to work these ridiculous hours or threatening them with losing their job. Unfortunately, we knew nothing about the company prior to moving out here. Now you hear a very common story, "Oh, you worked at that company? How long did you last before they completely burned you out?" That company treats their employees as expendable because next summer, they'll just hire another 600 new graduates to replace them.

But anyways... It was horrible. It took a HUGE toll on our relationship. Eventually he left that company and started working at a bike shop. He worked 10 hours a day there, then rode his bike to and from work, so, with commute, another 14 hour day for him. We knew that job was only going to be temporary, and our weekends were a lot better because he wasn't constantly stressing about losing his job. Now he works out of state, so we're now a commuter marriage, and I see more of him than I have since we started living together and he's much more relaxed and happier with his new company.

What I'm trying to say, in my overly wordy way, is that something is going to have to give. If this is something temporary, then I'd work through it. When my husband was at his first job, we didn't know if it was temporary or not, but eventually something had to go and it ended up being the job. It created a lot of stress for both of us. You can only keep up this pattern for so long before something gets derailed. Does your partner enjoy their work? Do they like working so many hours? Or are they stressed and want to work less but feel that they can't? If it's the latter, then they should start looking for a new position (I realize that's difficult). But if it's the former, you'll have to decide if that's something you're willing to have in your relationship. Then you can figure out ways of dealing with it as best you can -- lunch breaks together, scheduled date nights, etc.