I'll admit it, I'm missing my "work spouse". I'm still in the office and she's working from home. We haven't seen each other since before "spring break", that's over two months now. Yah, we email each other, and even "see" each other on video chat team meetings, but it's not the same. In the mornings, she'd bring in doughnuts, or for lunch, she would bring me in some left-overs. This from working from home stuff has been hard on all of us, especially my stomach.

If you're married and you've been working in an office environment for a long time, chances are, you have a work spouse. You have a friendship, or you could even call it a strong bond with this person. The key is, neither one of you step over the line and make things awkward.

The average employee spends around 40 hours per week, working a typical 9 to 5 job, that's a lot of time together with your co-workers. It seems sort of natural to seek support, friendship and loyalty in a space where we spend a large portion of our daily lives. PRPioneer.com conducted a survey of 3,500 employees working from home in quarantine about their relationship with their work spouse vs. their actual partner.

Here's the results:

• 1 in 5 Iowans admit missing their work spouse, more than they would their partner
• 2 in 3 Iowa couples say they are not as productive as they could be when working under the same roof.
• 1 in 10 admit accidentally calling their partner by their work spouse’s name. (Whoops!)

Assuming you're romantically involved with your actual partner, having a work spouse may trigger feelings of jealousy in your real-life relationship, especially if you call out your work spouse's name, let's just say...at the wrong time. Anyway, 63% of employees working from home say they would be more productive if they were in lockdown with their work spouse as compared to their actual partner. That makes sense, because your work spouse fully understands your industry, and "gets" what you're talking about. So, sometimes your actual partner ends up to just be more of a distraction than help.

At some point, this COVID-19 crisis shall pass, but in the meantime, here's some tips for working from home with your spouse. As for me, I have a glimmer of hope, as our office staff is set to return June 1st. I hope my work spouse has been saving up her left-overs.

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