The Office Spouse
He’s brash, extroverted and friendly. He’s smart and he knows it. He is loud and unapologetic about it. He’s a finance guy. And he’s my Office Spouse. Well, he used to be. Since he’s changed jobs, I’m find myself in a state of singlehood at work as well. Work is good, work is well but I miss my buddy.
He christened me his Office Spouse without so much as a ‘May I?’ but it was done with so much of gregarious charm I saw no reason to deny it. Mercifully there was none of that nasty nudge-nudge sort of gossip…well nothing that ever got to me anyway. He silenced everyone with a booming declaration of,
An Office Spouse is someone at work who you talk to and crib to. Sometimes you can’t stand them but you miss them on their off-days and you wonder how you’d get through the workplace madness without them!
Cho chweet, no? That’s almost better than any of the romantic fluff that’s come my way. And before you wonder, he’s married – happily so. His wife (then girlfriend) was introduced to me with …(what else?) loud-voiced,
This is your counterpart at office! The woman who fights with me at work!
We looked at each other, shrugged and burst into laughter and I knew my Office Spouse was great at picking his women – in his personal life and professional life.
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So what is this deal with the Office Spouse? My Office Spouse was someone I’d have been friends with, if I’d met him at a party or a friend’s place or school or college too. We didn’t really work together so we didn’t have that much of work-related stuff to discuss. But since we worked for the same company, in the same office, we could share those insider jokes. After a marathon 3-hour negotiation on the phone, I was the one he steamrolled into a coffee break. On an annoying day or in a boring meeting, he was the pal across the table, I’d roll my eyes at, when the powers-that-be weren’t looking.
As work eats into our lives more and more each day…in terms of the hours we spend at office as well as mindspace we give to it, our professional worlds increasingly get to be as big as, if not bigger than, our personal spaces. And in a world of madness, it’s always good to have someone to navigate it with, right?
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*Sigh* I do miss my Office Spouse. I was the first to know about his upcoming promotion, his transfer and then later, his move. I haven’t had a chance to tell him about all the things that have been happening in my professional life. And the next chance I get to speak to him, I’m probably gonna holler…
Yo, buddy, whats up in the sticks? Are you managing to survive without me? It just got to be too much without you to nag so I shifted too!
@ Rambler: Because of mounting pressures at the workplace, the need for someone to relate to, to provide a comforting shoulder, someone to bond with…is higher. Because there are more women at the workplace, there’s greater possibility for inter-sex relationships. And yes, I do think that human beings are inclined to find more comfort in the opposite sex though same-sex bonding does have its virtues.
well the point you bring out is interesting, why do you think that with mounting pressures and women at more workplaces the trend is increasing?, I guess with lesser woman earlier, the work pressures were high too, are you suggesting that woman and more work pressures, they are being more vulnerable?. or do you think us humans are more inclined to find comfort when opposite sexe is involved, [both men and women]
@ Rada: Thengyu, thengyu!! 🙂
@ Rambler: It is certainly nothing more than a new term but perhaps one that is gaining more relevance now, given that women have entered more workplaces and pressures at work are generally higher across.
I would really love to read how would one define spouse in general, would that definition differ across the gender. I somehow have a feeling that “office spouse” is a new age term used for work friendships..in fact there are so many office relationships if we want to term them, like haven’t we seen a office “bro” who kind of foresees our progress, a office “sister” and so on?…
You are right. Office life can become an arid desert without the help of colleagues whom you can rant and rave with!
Nice, interesting post. Eminently readable. 🙂