Why You Should Stop Calling Her Your “Work Wife”
Why our language matters — even if it seems innocent.
I shared a medium sized room with two older employees, Mike and Sharon. Both were in their 50s, and always nicely dressed. They were competent, well-spoken, and had been at the company for nearly 20 years, working in tandem.
As we sat in the room, I often heard them going over documents, joking, bickering, negotiating, doing all the things a couple might. If you only heard audio of them interacting, you might assume they were together.
But they were both happily married, and seemed loyal enough to their families. Pictures of their children and spouses sat by their respective desks.
Sharon jokingly asked me when I was going to get married —despite my being far from such a status being one of the only single men in the office.
“Not anytime soon I said,” with finality.
Mike and Sharon were both very professional. But they often referred to one another as, “My work spouse.” I was 24 at the time, and never saw it as weird. If anything, it came off as endearing, a way of making peace with all the heated debates they got into over work and important decisions they mulled.
