March 8, 2005

Maybe you need a job spouse
Posted by jr@jrothman.com">Johanna Rothman at 9:28 AM -

I discovered Do You Have an Office Wife via recruiting.com. At first, I thought this was about office affairs, but it's not. I laughed out loud at parts of this. Keep reading until you get to this part:

But in our own casual, platonic way, we became a couple: I didn’t have to love, honor, or obey—I merely vowed to hang out with her at ?re drills. We ate lunch together, mocked coworkers together, and shared the few genuine feelings that didn’t get soaked with cynicism and sink to the bottom of our souls forever. She kept me from sending hotheaded e-mails I might later regret. “Step away from the keyboard!” she would tell me. I kept her entertained. For ten, twelve, fourteen hours a day, Amy was my work wife. I was her day husband.

I kept reading, and wasn't disappointed with the rest of Prince's piece. I particularly liked the parts about Work Wife Number Five.

Work Wife Number Five, Marie, invited herself to dinner one Mother’s Day, adding a dangerous layer of intrigue to her relationship with my wife. After years of practice, Marie thinks every woman should have an office husband, “especially if you’re single and they’re married, because then there’s no worry—at least for this nice girl—that things will cross the line.” Marie has left a legion of heartsick work husbands behind her. “They tell you about their kids and their home renovations and the suburbs,” she says. “You tell them all about your insane dates and how you need to freeze some eggs.”

I never thought of my work buddies as work-spouses, but I have reaped the benefits of other people who could be sounding boards at work, especially when they helped me not send that email...

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