A recent study from business telecommunications provider, 4Com shows that for Londoners, work isn’t just about a pay cheque, with three in five of them (75%) saying they’ve made lifelong friendships with work colleagues.
Of these, almost half (46%) have colleagues they even describe as their ‘work spouse’. But, what exactly is a work spouse?
Communication experts, Dr. Chad McBride of Creighton University and Dr. Karla Mason from the College of Saint Mary, describe the bond as a “special, platonic friendship with a work colleague characterised by a close emotional bond, high levels of disclosure and support, and mutual trust, honesty, loyalty and respect.”
For London workers, the top three reasons for calling a close work friend their ‘work spouse’, are:
- Because I trust them with secrets (17%)
- Because we argue like husband and wife (17%)
- Because they make me smile and laugh whenever they’re around (15%)
While a ‘work spouse’ is, of course, a platonic relationship, sometimes a close work friendship can develop into something more. Having met her boyfriend at work, PR executive Leah, says: “I met him when I started my first job after university – my desk was next to his. He has a big personality and is very funny so it was very hard to ignore him, we got on straight away! We thought we had kept our romance a secret, but it turns out everybody knew, so it was quite funny when they told us we hadn’t hidden things very well!
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