Honey, meet my work spouse.
No matter where we work or who we befriend, there is always someone of the opposite sex that we gravitate towards. We hang out with them, we have lunch with them, and we even share personal issues that we normally wouldn’t tell others with which we work. We travel to their cubicle when we have office gossip, go to them when we want to vent knowing we can trust them, and share our smoke breaks. But we never knew what to call this person; normally it would just be “friend”, but for others, it’s a much deeper relationship. They are our “office mate” or “work spouse” (And the real mate has NOTHING to worry about; both parties realize this is just work). If you weren’t sure what to call this person, now you have a name!
With a previous job, I could say I probably had an office mate. My office mate, we’ll call him Calvin. Calvin was my trainer when I first started, so it was probably natural that we gravitated towards each other. Of course nothing inappropriate went on, but I believe because we worked so closely when I first started it was easy for us to share personal things about our lives. Even though I ended up leaving that team, we remained friends. I know of another “office couple” who go to lunch together and the “wife” even brings leftovers to the “husband”. Another couple keeps each other in the loop of their personal lives, hang out some time after hours, and go to lunch a time or two each week.
I truly believe that your job, no mattter how much you love it, is much more enjoyable if you work with great people. If you have the worst job ever your co-workers can make you forget how much you wish you were doing something else and your days go by faster. Do you have an office mate? If so, what things do you share? Until next time, I’m just a Southern girl…in the city.
Southern Girl in the City 
THE IDEA OF AN OFFICE MATE IS GREAT….IF THE 2 ARE SINGLE. HOWEVER, I THINK THAT IF EITHER PARTY HAS A REAL MATE, THIS OFFICE RELATIONSHIP MAY BE A BIT MUCH. I.E. I’D HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM IF A WOMAN AT MY BOYFRIEND’S/HUSBAND’S JOB WAS BRINGING HIM LEFTOVERS….WHY??? THAT’S DOING TOO MUCH, UNLESS BOTH PARTIES ARE SINGLE.
Elle,
This is a great topic! I pretty much, have always had an office mate or as we refer to each other “work husband/wife.” Typically in my experiences, this relationship has absolutely nothing to do with the family or friends in your personal lives. You mainly speak about office gossip, upcoming projects and the evils of the work place. (Lol) even if you like your job! You may go to lunch together, typically the cheapest place McDonald’s happy meals or something in comparison. No one’s trying to impress, just make the day pass with a little laughter!
I’ve lost plenty of office husbands but always managed to remain friends. If you don’t have one, be sure to get yourself one!!!
Elle,
I totally agree with Daydreaming Dee, this is an awesome pefect topic. I think its quite natural for a relationship to form between office mates, only because you spend so much time with them. Actually majority of your day is spent with co-workers. But I don’t think its always as innocent as people try to make it seem. There is definitely and underlying chemistry and naughtiness that is waiting for someone to slip up.
But hey maybe I just have a skeptical pov when it comes to office relationships.