A super-close colleague can be the difference between dreading the everyday grind and floating into the office with a smile on your face – and a second latte in your hands, because you know her Starbucks order, obviously. We're big fans of the latter scenario (especially when she makes the coffee run), but it's a bit of a fine line between coworker and codependent.
Plus, explains workplace psychologist Karissa Thacker, walking that line too closely can have some major real-life consequences. For example, among other things, your "we're sisters" bond with your work wife could turn off other coworkers from approaching you, which can leave you with fewer opportunities to succeed or make other friends in the work zone.
If any of the following are true, it's probably time to take a moment – and some space – to unglue yourselves from each other.
1. You have to stay late at your desk a couple of nights a week so you can actually work, because you usually spend a third of your day together by the water cooler. Oops.
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2. The two of you Gchat so frequently that your green circles only turn orange when you are asleep.
3. That time she went to Big Dumpling for lunch with Hannah from Creative Services, it felt like she was cheating on you. That's usually your lunch place.
4. When your other coworkers don't leave the seat next to her open for you in meetings, you are shocked. Shocked.
5. When anyone invites your work wife anywhere — to lunch, an informational interview, the office supplies cabinet — you grab your wallet and phone and say, "Where are we going?"
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6. Your partner texts her when he or she can't get hold of you.
7. Your boss sometimes mixes up your names, and now just refers to each of you as "Separation Anxiety."
8. If you show up at the salad place without her, the cashier looks confused and asks, "Where's your friend?"
9. Her weeklong trip to Portugal is the longest, most tedious week of your life (if the all-caps Romeo and Juliet quotations you left in her Instagram comments are to be believed).
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10. The two of you have your own emoji text shorthand and can decide where and when to grab lunch, get coffee, or have a work-related flip-out in three characters or less.
11. You notice (and compliment) every single new item of clothing she wears to the office, because you could probably draw from memory every work outfit in her closet. (That's not creepy! Is it?)
12. You're soooort of secretly hoping that she never looks for a new job–not because she doesn't deserve it, but what would you do if she ever left? Kidding. Really.
By Jaime Buerger