Жене по вечерам хорошо работается на кухне, а мужу — в гостиной за компьютером.

In this sentence, Жене (to the wife) and мужу (to the husband) are in the dative because the structure кому + хорошо работается literally means “it works well for whom.”

Russian often uses the dative to show the person who experiences a certain state or condition:

• Мне холодно. – I am cold. (Literally: It is cold to me.)
• Ему трудно работать. – It is hard for him to work.

Similarly:

• Жене хорошо работается … – It is easy/pleasant for the wife to work …
• … а мужу — … – … and for the husband (it is easy/pleasant to work) …

So the dative here marks the “experiencer” of the situation, not the grammatical subject (there is no normal subject in an impersonal construction like работается).

Работается is a reflexive verb form (работать + -ся) used impersonally to mean something like “it feels to work / it goes, working.” In this sentence it describes how easy/pleasant it is for someone to work.

Compare:

• Жена работает на кухне. – The wife works in the kitchen.

  • Normal personal verb, clear subject (жена).

• Жене хорошо работается на кухне. – It’s pleasant/easy for the wife to work in the kitchen.

  • Impersonal; no explicit subject. The feeling/quality of working is in focus.

With работается, you usually answer questions like:

• Как тебе работается дома? – How is it for you, working at home?
• Мне здесь хорошо работается. – I work well here / It’s nice to work here.

So работает states an objective action: “(someone) works.”
Работается adds a subjective nuance: “(for someone) working goes well / feels good.”

Literally, -ся is the reflexive marker, but in many verbs it has extended meanings and no longer means “oneself.” One such extended use is forming impersonal verbs that describe general states or how an activity “goes” for someone.

With работается:

• It does not mean “works itself.”
• It means something closer to “(it) is working for someone,” “(it) goes, working.”

Other common impersonal reflexive verbs:

• Мне не спится. – I can’t sleep / I don’t feel like sleeping.
• Ему не думается сегодня. – He can’t think today.
• Им хорошо живётся. – They live well / Life is good for them.

In all of these, -ся marks that the verb is impersonal and describes a general experience or state, not a subject doing something to themself.

You can say Жена хорошо работает на кухне, but the nuance changes:

• Жена хорошо работает на кухне.

  • Focus: she is a good worker there / she performs her job well.
  • Objective evaluation of her work quality.

• Жене хорошо работается на кухне.

  • Focus: how she feels working there; it’s convenient, pleasant, comfortable for her.
  • Subjective experience.

So the original sentence emphasizes comfort and ease, not her professional skill. In English, it’s closer to:

• “She finds it easy/nice to work in the kitchen in the evenings.”

По вечерам means “in the evenings / on evenings (regularly).”

The pattern is:

• по
  • plural dative = “on [repeated days/times]”

Examples:

• по утрам – in the mornings
• по выходным – on weekends
• по понедельникам – on Mondays

So по вечерам implies habitual, repeated action in the evenings, not just one specific evening. It describes the time when this is usually true: in the evenings, she finds it easy to work in the kitchen.

The dash stands for information that is understood from the first part and therefore omitted to avoid repetition.

Full form would be:

• Жене по вечерам хорошо работается на кухне, а мужу по вечерам хорошо работается в гостиной за компьютером.

That’s long and repetitive, so Russian often:

• keeps the second кому (here мужу),
• drops the repeated adverb and verb (хорошо работается),
• and replaces them with a dash:

… а мужу — в гостиной за компьютером.

The dash can be read as “(it is easy/pleasant to work)” understood from context, like in English:

• “She likes working in the kitchen in the evenings, and her husband — in the living room at the computer.”

Both на кухне and в гостиной mean “in the …” in English, but Russian uses different prepositions depending on the type of place and idiomatic usage:

• на кухне (on/at the kitchen) – fixed phrase for “in the kitchen.”
• в гостиной (in the living room) – normal в
  • location.

Some common patterns:

• на кухне – in the kitchen
• на улице – outside, in the street
• на работе – at work
• в комнате – in the room
• в гостиной – in the living room

It’s mostly idiomatic: you just have to learn that with кухня you typically say на кухне, and with гостиная you say в гостиной.

За компьютером literally means “behind/at the computer” and focuses on the workstation position: someone sitting at the computer, using it.

• за
  • instrumental (компьютером) = “at / behind (an object where you sit or stand to do something).”

Common expressions:

• за столом – at the table
• за рулём – at the wheel (driving)
• за компьютером – at the computer (working/using it)

На компьютере is also possible, but it usually means “on the computer (as a device)”, like:

• Играть на компьютере – to play on the computer (i.e., using a computer).

In your sentence, за компьютером is more natural because it describes the place/position where the husband works: at the computer, in front of it.

Yes, хорошо работается is an impersonal construction: it has no grammatical subject.

• There is no explicit “it” in Russian.
• The verb работается is in 3rd person singular neuter form by default, but it doesn’t refer to any noun.

So grammatically, it’s a subjectless sentence that describes a state:

• Холодно. – It is cold.
• Мне не спится. – I can’t sleep.
• Жене хорошо работается. – It’s easy/pleasant for the wife to work.

The experiencer (Жене, мужу) is in the dative, not the nominative subject position.

Хорошо here is an adverb, not an adjective. Adverbs do not change for gender, number, or case.

• As an adjective: хороший / хорошая / хорошее / хорошие – good (describing a noun).
• As an adverb: хорошо – well, nicely, in a good way.

In хорошо работается, хорошо tells us how it is to work (well, easily, comfortably). There’s nothing for it to agree with; adjectives agree with nouns, but here we don’t have a noun being described.

Compare:

• Хорошая кухня. – a good kitchen (adjective).
• На кухне хорошо работается. – It’s good (pleasant) to work in the kitchen (adverb).

In the present tense, Russian normally drops the verb “to be” (быть) in sentences like “X is Y” or “It is X for Y.”

So instead of:

• ✗ Жене есть хорошо работаться… (incorrect, unnatural)

Russian simply says:

• Жене хорошо работается…

Similarly:

• Мне холодно. – I am cold. (No “am” in Russian.)
• Ему трудно. – It is difficult for him.

The “is” meaning is understood from the structure of the sentence and the present tense form of the verb/adverbial predicate.

Russian doesn’t have articles (a, the) and often omits possessives (my, his, her) when the relationship is obvious from context.

Жене literally means “to (the) wife” (dative of жена), but in a typical everyday context it will often be understood as “(my/his/her) wife” depending on who is speaking.

If you want to be explicit, you can say:

• Моей жене по вечерам хорошо работается на кухне… – My wife finds it easy to work in the kitchen in the evenings…

But in many cases, just жене is enough and natural, especially if it’s clear whose wife is being talked about (for example, the speaker’s own spouse).