He Completes Me! Meet My 'Work Spouse'
HYBRID LOVE
He Completes Me! Meet My 'Work Spouse'
I MET MY WORK HUSBAND AFTER A MOUSE RAN ACROSS MY DESK. I SCREAMED BLOODY MURDER and he laughed his head off. It's been love ever since!
Shortly before this incident he lost his first wife. Just some skank (haha, just joking!) who latched onto him because he's a really nice guy and they started work on the same day. That ended after he proved not so nice and refused to do her work so she wouldn't get fired. She got fired.
To look at us we’re complete opposites, as so many couples are. He's gay, white, married and not yet 30. I'm straight, black, married and, ahem, over 30. But somehow, we click!
He's my "work spouse," my husband at the office with whom I can gossip, kvetch about the real spouse, and take a ciggie break. Didn't you know? It's the best office accessory!
Yes, this is a bonafide phenomenon documented in none other than Wikipedia, which states, "A work spouse is a co-worker (usually of the opposite sex)[1] with whom one shares a special relationship, having bonds similar to those of a marriage; such as, special confidences, loyalties, shared jokes and experiences, and an unusual degree of honesty or openness.The work spouse is a potentially key relationship when one's actual spouse or boy/girlfriend is not able to understand the nuances of the workplace."
According to Forbes, about 17 percent of office workers reported having a "work spouse" in a 2006 Harris Interactive poll. Wikipedia claims "these hybrid relationships have begun to spawn more and more" as workers' hours have increased.
The trend has even reached the White House, where POTUS Barack Obama hired long-time confidant Valerie Jarrett to be a senior aide. "I trust her completely," Obama has been quoted as saying.
Just last month, Careerbuilder.com published "seven clear signs you might have a workspouse." Number three? "You're comfortable enough to point out that the other's hair is sticking up -- or that someone's fly is down."
Which describes me and D. It didn't take long after my mouse-shrieking incident to officially bond, and we started having lunch together everyday. Soon it expanded to sharing breakfast, coffee, cash loans and office hours.
Now when I go to the coffee shop alone they wonder where he is, and the maintenance man asks in his thick Russian accent, "Where is your bodyguard?"
Two peas in a pod and as thick as thieves, but sometimes there's trouble in paradise. We bicker over minutiae as our colleagues remark, "You guys are like an old married couple." Colleagues can’t believe we’ve never hung out outside of work except at office parties.
Last year, at the Christmas party, we promptly left our partners to have Christmas shots at the bar together. We also took pictures together. My husband made me take mine to work. D has his at work as well.
We share a love of all things old -- antiques, houses, cemeteries. We enjoy ridiculing the fashions of passersby during our daily breaks outside. Sometimes we just break out in show tunes. And we console each other when there’s trouble at home. And I'll admit we've gotten in trouble together too. But thankfully nothing too serious.
I think our excellent attendance records are due to wanting to see each other every day.
I’ve had my career and he’s still searching for one. But the constant threat of his leaving is terrifying. Would we keep in touch? I just hate to think of the end of our innocent office affair. Who would make me laugh?
SexyChattyCatty is a regular contributor at CrabbyGolightly.com where she writes frequently on TV, America's favorite snack food.
Tags: Pop Culture
