From "Transfection" by David Gaughran

A molecular biologist's obsession with his work begins costing him more than he realises:

His only real friend on the staff was his assistant, Jim Glover, a PhD candidate helping him with his research. His wife regularly joked she was jealous of Jim, who spent more time with her husband than she did, but beneath the teasing Dr. Peters suspected she harbored real resentment.

“Why don’t you move into the private sector?” his wife asked, when he came home from work on time for once and complained that his grants were being cut again. They’d had this conversation, in one form or another, frequently–ever since she had spotted her dream summerhouse on a realtor’s webpage.

“It’s always the same bullshit choice,” he said. “Fire Jim and scale back my work, or take the hit in my own salary. I’m sick of it.”

She barely looked at him. “I hear there’s lots of money in the private sector.”

They had stopped talking with each other years ago. Now they just talked at each other.