Is It Okay to Have a “work Wife” or “work Husband"?

I don't think that anything is "a slippery slope to infidelity" except for being a cheater. That being said, I also don't find it appropriate to refer to anyone else as my husband or wife besides, well, my wife.

View Quoted Comment

What term do you prefer?

I think usually that's just playfulness at the work place but doesn't imply infidelity

View Quoted Comment

Um, friends?

My FW calls my best friend and business partner my work husband lol.

I think the whole idea is weird but likely a joke. A cheater is going to cheat no matter what you call it. I'd suspect a cheater wouldn't be as obvious about it.

View Quoted Comment

That's true in many cases. At my first teaching job I had a "work husband" and it was completely playful and platonic.

View Quoted Comment

Lol, great idea.

I have a work husband, but it’s just because we work super well together in our hospital environment and we both know we can come to each other with anything, work or personal. He has a very good relationship with his girlfriend, who is also one of my friends. My FH has a work wife, but I don’t think it has anything to do with cheating. Personally I feel like it’s just a super close coworker, and when you spend 12 hours a day with someone you develop a close relationship. It’s just a joke and lightens up a stressful work environment in my opinion.

View Quoted Comment

Do you agree with the terminology or does it bother you?

View Quoted Comment

Sometimes cheating hides in plain sight and could be masked by the terminology considering most people consider it to be a joke. But to your point, cheaters are going to cheat regardless.

View Quoted Comment

Do you and your husband spend time with your work "spouses" outside of work?

View Quoted Comment Only if it’s work related events. If everyone else from work is getting together but normally everyone significant others is also there think big work dinners or work parties.

I don’t think it’s leading to being unfaithful but I personally find the term weird. I would probably just say good friend/colleague you’re close to and wouldn’t feel the need to make a joking reference to marriage. To each their own though!

View Quoted Comment

Okay, I was just curious. Not that it would be suspicious if you did hang out outside fo work.

View Quoted Comment

A lot of people don't like the terminology but think it's okay to be close with a colleague of the opposite sex. What specifically is it about the terminology that you don't like?

So my boss (male) and my other coworker (female) have worked together for 40 years and they bicker CONSTANTLY like a married couple, but they’ve also been extremely close friends for decades.

For me personally my one coworker hired me 3 years ago as a summer intern, and he was my boss then but now I work there full time under someone else. But this one coworker (who basically got me this job) is always my go-to person every time I’m not sure what to do with an assignment or need an extra pair of eyes, and then he just gives me life advice too lol. He’s also over 20 years older than me and based on this relationship we joke that he’s my “work dad” which is definitely more fitting than spouse :p

The thing that bothered me once was when like a year or so ago, people on my husband’s team at his job kept referring to this one woman as his “work wife” when this was a woman who isn’t even on his team (so they don’t even really work together, they’re just at the same company...) and they had only known each other for like, 6 months. There was nothing that made them “married” except for being friends...? THAT rubbed me the wrong way because it really was a stretch trying to label them that......?

Idk I guess it depends on the situation.

View Quoted Comment

I think you bring up a good point, what exactly qualifies someone as being a "work husband" or "work wife"? It is working really closely together? Being good friends? Arguing like "married couples"? Working together for a significant amount of time? I myself have never considered where/how the name derived.

View Quoted Comment I feel like in the situation with my coworkers who have known each other for decades and are really close but also bicker all the time is like, very work-spouse-y by any definition hahaha, but I also feel like it’s super weird to like, stretch the meaning of work spouse to just be an opposite-sex coworker who you’re friendly with? Like what about that is spouse-y? Lol.

I have a best friend whom I used to work with and we jokingly called each other work husband and work wife. My fh and I go in vacation with him and his wife and hes actually in my wedding party. Its just a joke nothing to be serious about