The Long Shelf Life of the 'Office Wife' Meme

To merit coverage in the style pages of newspapers, a trend can be real or imaginary, but usually it has to be newish.

Not so the office marriage. Though it was described, in its modern form, by David Owen in The Atlantic Monthly a full 20 years ago, lifestyle writers are still trotting out trend pieces on office matrimony as though it post-dated Wii parties*.

Today's contribution to the genre, "Let's Play Spouse," comes from The New York Post's Mandy Stadtmiller. You'd think the Post would've been hip to this trend earlier, considering that it declared, in January 2006, "Having an office 'wife' or office 'husband' can make you a happier worker, and improve your chances for promotions and raises."

Some other notches on the office spouse timeline:

-March 2005: "Do You Have an Office Wife?," GQ

-Nov. 17, 2004: "Prexy Sks Wrk Wf," Slate

-Sept. 24, 2003: "How Workplace Couples Keep Each Other Happy," The Wall Street Journal

-Oct. 17, 1996: "Sharing Your Mate With the 'Office Spouse,'" Toronto Sun

And check out the Wikipedia entry for "work spouse", which traces the concept back to the 19th century.

*By the way, I had never actually heard about Wii parties, but it sounded like something you'd read about in a trend story, so I Googled it, and sure enough...