Should You Have a ‘Work Spouse?’
When it comes to coworker relations there are the loners, the people that try to get everyone to like them, and then there are the folks that have that Jim and Pam thing going on. And if you’ve ever been jealous of those ‘work spouses,’ it turns out you’re right to be. A recent survey shows there are some major benefits of having those ‘will they, won’t they’ vibes with a colleague.
Happier Work Situation. Work is just better with a bestie. Work spouses are there for each other, use humor to cope with stress, and keep one another’s motivation high. They also look forward to working more because of their relationship and have been shown to have higher confidence and productivity than others without such a strong relationship.
Getting Your Real Partner On-Board Helps. As we’ve learned from countless sitcoms, these work spouse situations can make things complicated at home. Even if things are strictly platonic, the survey found 31% of people say they’re indifferent to their partner’s work spouse. So some have tried to get ahead of the fight. About three out of five men and 69% of women say they’ve introduced their work spouse to their partner and it’s actually smoothed things out.
Playing With Fire. While all the work spouses in your office say they’re not attracted to each other, the survey found that’s a lie. A whopping 84.4% of men said that they’re “moderately attracted” to their work spouse and 61.9% of women said the same. No word on what percentage of guys think they’re work wife is into them, but 100% would be a good guess.
