i don't have the luxury of paying much attention to anything else but getting rid of the pinch on the way down.
Landlubber,
Not to sound like a preacher and I'm not a professional by any means but "paying attention to everything else" is not a LUXURY when diving it's a neccessity. I'm sure others on the board will agree with me. It might require slowing your descent, if you are getting to depth before your buddy maybe you are going too fast. You should always try to descend with your buddy, that's the whole idea behind a buddy, it might even help your ear clearing problem. Like I stated before if you had been with your buddy you might have noticed your faulty guage sooner.
If your buddy is aware of your ear clearing problem, which they should be, and still chooses to dive with you then it should not be a problem to them if you have to descend slowly, they have already accepted it.