Existence of ‘Another spouse’ in work place

One of every two men feels sense of closeness with his female co-workers, according to a survey on Monday. This has inspired the new term, “office spouse.”

DUO Life Consulting (www.duoconsulting.co.kr), run by the wedding consulting company DUO, conducted a survey of 127 male and 193 female workers, all of whom are married. About 57 percent of male respondents and 32 percent of the women said that they are more familiar with their opposite sex co-workers than their own spouse.

Office spouses spend an average 70 minutes a day engaged in conversation, 10 minutes longer than with their real spouses. Around 48 percent of those surveyed said that work-related subjects take up most of the conversation, followed by business at 18.8 percent, interests at 11.3 percent, social issues at 10.5 percent and family at 5.3 percent.

As many as 63.8 percent of men and 58.5 percent of women replied that they are comfortable with office spouses if they keep some distance between them.

In another questionnaire, 69.4 percent of men questioned said that they felt attracted to their office spouse, while 70.5 percent of the women responded negatively to a similar question.