[DrPhil]

33girl, I too dislike the phrase "work spouse."

If it's platonic, why can't someone simply be a helpful colleague or work buddy. Calling someone a work spouse makes me think the behavior is in line with the emotional and/or physical bonds that spouses should have.

And then there are people who actually do have nonplatonic emotional and physical bonds with co-workers.

Even a work crush is okay if you are single and as long as you don't violate company policies. However, when you're in a committed relationship, you need to watch your emotional and physical interactions with people whether at work or anywhere else. If the person is simply helpful at work or you joke with each other, that's a platonic work buddy. AOII Angel had a work sibling, not a work spouse. Saying work spouse makes it unnecessarily strange.