Work-Married: 5 Signs You've Found Your Office BFF

Starting your first job can be nerve racking. It might be your first time having real responsibilities, real hours and real paychecks. The pressure is definitely on, and you want to present yourself in the best possible light.

A new job also means meeting new people with whom you'll share space and so many hours per week. You’re bound to make some close acquaintances and hopefully some awesome friends.

Assuming you’re friendly and outgoing, and that your office isn’t full of assh*les, you’ll soon be close enough to a couple people that the workplace will feel less intimidating. Then, the atmosphere you once regarded as scary will start to feel like home.

Now that you’re at home, the next step is solidifying a supportive workplace relationship. This means finding a BFF to become your work spouse. When you’re spending such a significant amount of time in the workplace, it only makes sense to find someone on whom you can rely.

Although your work person might be of the opposite sex, this is a completely platonic relationship — an awesome, fulfilling friendship.

It's one that provides support, easy conversation and brief escapes from the monotony of the workday. Your work spouse isn’t someone who makes your real-life significant other jealous.

When you refer to your work spouse, you're simply riffing on the fact that you spend so much time together, you might as well be married. It's all just fun and games.

Here are five signs you are most definitely work-married:

1. You always have a lunch date

Lunch: the sacred hour to enjoy each day, decompressing before heading back to finish out the rest of the day. When you’re work-married, you have a constant companion to join you for a sandwich and a quick stroll in the park.

With your work spouse, it’s never a question of, “What are YOU doing for lunch?” Rather, it's, “What are WE doing for lunch?” It’s just understood that you’re each other’s partner-in-crime between the hours of 9 and 5.

2. You two can talk about anything

You’re excited to hear about your work spouse's Hinge date from the previous night. He or she is equally thrilled to hear that things are working out so well with your new fling.

The two of you are incredibly supportive of each other’s personal lives and love having the chance to vent to someone outside of your personal friend group.

Likewise, the two of you can talk about office happenings with an understanding that your friends wouldn’t grasp because they aren’t in that environment with you every day.

You two have a bond that only two people who spend countless hours sitting under the same artificial lighting can have.

3. You have someone to hang out with at every office party

You never have to feel worried about interrupting conversations because you always have someone with whom you can chat. It’s not that you are afraid to go and mingle with your other office pals, but your work spouse is a surefire destination for support.

Plus, you can always count on him or her to grab you another beer.

4. You miss him or her on the weekends

Spending so much time together during the week can really make you miss your work spouse during the (never-long-enough) weekend.

It isn’t too difficult to imagine, considering you converse with and confide in this person regularly, five days a week.

When you’re not talking, you’re instant messaging, sending each other GIFs and laughing about inside jokes. From Friday to Sunday, you don’t have that kind of contact because you're each with your respective groups of friends.

Still, you're happy you have someone to catch up with about the weekend debauchery come Monday morning.

5. The work spouse asks you about your work and actually cares

Your friends are polite and caring enough to ask you how work is going and what you’re doing there, but do they genuinely care? When you extend similar inquiries, do you really care?

Of course, you love your friends and you want them to be happy at work, but when your careers are completely different, do their goings on at the office really interest you?

When you’re work-married, you and your work spouse are at the same company and maybe even have the same exact job.

So, when you ask him or her how that article is coming or how that advertising campaign is improving, you’re rapt with attention.

It’s easy to care and offer feedback about something in which you're personally invested.

Photo Courtesy: MTV/The Hills