A guy I know is getting laid off, and his wife is non-stop on his case about getting a replacement job

[MatureDJ]

They are in their 50s, and her career is going well - but his business is getting bought out, and he will be getting a pink slip. He has a side hustle hobby that he has been doing, a lot of times for free for various non-profits that he has agency with, and now he is trying to tap all that goodwill from those free jobs to boost up into getting paid gigs. However, his wife wants to see him "pound the pavement" and "get a real job", but I have a hunch that the only "real job" he could get is something like working as an auto-parts clerk, which pays sheet.

I think this a problem that a lot of older married men face - that if the wife is working, she'll be damned if she is going to be the one bringing home the bacon!

 

[Grandma Penkitten]

Realistically, the cost of living is absurd at the moment. Our household could not afford to operate long if a job was lost. It takes the two of us as a team. On top of that, as we age, we have to have health insurance because most folks have some ailment. If a married couple each gets a policy through their employers, it usually is a heck of a lot cheaper than adding the spouse to their policy and paying for family insurance.
Sometimes, you just don't net enough to cover those plans.
So, instead of implying that the wife wouldn't like the idea of being the breadwinner, it just sounds like they have a tight budget and they can't afford for him not to be working right now.