• Work spouses make employees feel safe and supported because they have someone to bounce their ideas off of without feeling shy.
• 60 per cent of what work spouses discuss revolves around the workplace.
Image: COURTESY
Image: COURTESY
Employees in work spouse relationships mostly discuss colleagues, problems with their roles, current happenings and ongoing projects, a study has shown.
The study by Corporate Staffing Services found that 60 per cent of what work spouses discuss revolves around the workplace.
Other topics include religious issues and business ideas, home issues, politics, and recreational activities.
The report defines a work spouse as a colleague of the opposite gender with whom you have a strong friendship with and who meets your emotional needs in the workplace.
Some 64 per cent of employees in the same office are currently in or have been in a work spouse relationship with a colleague, the report found.
"They offer a close connection, support, and advice on both work and personal issues. The relationship is ideally platonic," Corporate Staffing Services managing partner Perminus Wainaina said.
The findings are based on research conducted between December and January among 2,550 employees.
The report titled 'Inside the World of Work Spouses in Kenyan Organizations' was released yesterday in Nairobi.
Colleagues in a work spouse relationship get someone they can confide in and be more honest with.
"They develop an easy rapport that can be a soothing antidote to the more stressful interactions they may have with other colleagues," Wainaina said.
"They also have a co-worker who understands their preferred work style and tries to accommodate this as best as they can."
The report also shows 90 per cent of work spouses are people in the same administration level, for instance, a colleague in the same department or in another department.
"Only a paltry eight per cent of respondents engaged in work spouse relationships with their subordinate or supervisor," the report reads.
A majority of 52 per cent will last anywhere between one and four years and according to Wainaina, this is often dictated by the duration of employment at the same office.
"This data is symmetrical to human resource findings around how long people stay at jobs nowadays, which is between one and four years," he said.
Those in work spouse relationships below one-year point are about 38 per cent.
The researchers also spoke to 150 human resource professionals to find out the effect of work spouse relationship on work productivity.
They found that the work spouses help get more work done faster because they work more seamlessly rather than if either of them had to work with someone less in synch with them.
Wainaina noted that work spouses make employees feel safe and supported because they have someone to bounce their ideas off of without feeling shy.
"However, on the flip side, work spouse relationships harm work productivity. They can lead to hurt feelings, divisiveness, tarnished reputations, and even attrition if employees feel they are in an unhealthy work environment," read the report.
Asked if they interact outside the office, 59 per cent of the respondents said they keep the relationship confined to the office while 41 per cent communicate even outside work on weekends and weeknights.
The survey adds 53.8 per cent of the employees have kept their work spouse as a secret from their real spouses or are single.
Additionally, 66.5per cent of the respondents has had their work spouse influence their career decisions.
In the case of a fallout, 78.7 per cent of the respondents would continue with their work spouse relationships even if their work spouse left the workplace.
In the case where a work spouse leaves, 79per cent would still keep in touch with them while 14 per cent would seek to stop the relationship and cease all personal interactions.