work husband

It’s one of those terms where some people are really squicked out by it and some people don’t have a problem with it because they don’t mean it in a squicky way. “Work wife” and “work husband” are generally used to mean “colleague with whom you have a very close work relationship.” And while they did originally seem to only get applied to colleagues of the opposite sex, they now get used for colleagues of the same sex too.

what’s up with the term “work wife”? Ask a Manager 2022

I had a work husband. My wife had a work husband. Oddly enough, we all worked for the same company (wife and I worked in different departments so rarely saw each other during the day). Our work husbands knew each other and used to refer to each other as “husbands in law”. It really confused those who didn’t know the story.

Is men having a "work wife" really a thing or did Reddit make it up? 2026