Nicknaming your office bestie your ‘work husband’ or ‘work wife’ has become part of modern day lexicon. It’s that one person who shares your juvenile sense of humour, knows your obsessively specific coffee order and whisks you off after a dull meeting for a bitch. In other words, they make your working day bearable.
But what happens when ‘work spouse’ becomes a little too literal? Popular social media platform Reddit is groaning with stories of on-the-job affairs. And consensus is that sex with a work spouse will rock your world – but not always for the best reasons…
One thread boasted risqué confessions, with posters agreeing that a long build-up of friendship and flirting can culminate in explosive sex. One guy worked in a hospital cafeteria and caught feelings for a coworker: “She came into the snacks room while I was eating a granola bar, shut the door, pulled down my pants and started giving me head. After probably a minute I’m certain I could live out the ‘have sex at work’ fantasy and picked her up and put her on the snacks table. She instantly jumps off and says ‘Very unsanitary’ with a grin and leaves,” he added, joking, “Extremely annoyed but impressed with that work ethic!”
One glaring problem with snatched sex on the job is…getting caught. One Reddit user remembered, “While working as an assistant manager at [an electrical retail store], I hooked up with one of the cashiers in our cash office. Unbeknownst to us, my district manager was in the store watching on camera. Suddenly, mid thrust, we heard his voice over the intercom telling us to move a foot to the right for a better camera angle.” But while the manager made light of it, their days at the store were numbered: “Needless to say neither the cashier or myself worked there much longer.”
Another said, “I [had sex with] a girl in the liquor room of a bar, there were wire rack shelves full of loose bottles on the wall between the liquor room and the bar. I didn’t realize the music stopped, and she was holding on to the shelves and they were banging against the wall with all the bottles clanging together. We came out to 30-40 people clapping and cheering….”
When work spouses have real-life significant others at home, the stakes are high. Many Redditors have admitted to feeling suspicious about their partners’ coworkers. And for good reason. Over 60% of adults have had a workplace romance, according to a 2024 survey, and a whopping 40% of these trysts involve cheating on a partner. This can end in devastation, as many Reddit users will attest.
“I showed up to my girlfriend’s work to pick her up (she knew I was outside) and as I walked up I saw them through the window, he pinched her ass, and she just giggled. That’s how I knew,” a male poster who had suspicions about his partner’s close work friendship lamented.

And a wronged wife shared, “My ex started an affair with a coworker/friend while I was pregnant. We’d moved to a new country so we didn’t have family or many friends there. The affair continued even after our baby ended up dying suddenly from SIDS. My ex abandoned me about a month after our son died (I was not aware of the affair), so I was left isolated and bedridden from grief in a totally new country. Our mutual ‘friends’ all gravitated to my ex because he was able to be ‘fun’ while I was a grieving mother. … My ex gave me hot and cold behaviour the next 3 years until he finally confessed to his affair, and I finally divorced him.”
As well as destroying marriages, workplace affairs risk your professional reputation, or even your job – after all many companies ban coworkers from dating. A Redditor warned, “Those of you involved in affairs with coworkers, be VERY careful or just don’t do it. A friend had an affair with a coworker. His wife found out and has absolutely made friend’s life hell professionally. She’s sent video footage and photos of them together, copies of hotel reservations to the head of the organisation, senior management, to her husband, to her family members, to other coworkers. She’s written letters and sent emails to friend calling her all sorts.  Simply put, friend’s reputation is tanked and she’s so embarrassed.”
And the tale with the most shocking twist: “My ex-wife’s sister was always ‘working’, and her husband was getting suspicious. Weird hours, weekend projects,” he explained. The husband aired his concerned about her work husband – who was also her boss –  and she was outraged at the suggestion. “I saw the forest for the trees and my wife felt the same way. But it was none of our business. About a month later, [the wife and her lover] were found dead in a cheap motel in Atlantic city. Murder suicide. Her note said that he got her pregnant and wanted to leave her.” The husband was left shellshocked and “inconsolable” to find out his suspicions were true and he’d lost his wife in the darkest of circumstances.
Since Covid in 2020, many of us work from home some of the week, so what impact does that have on coworker affairs? According to the ‘adultery’ subreddit forum, cunning is required.
“I WFH [work from home] two days a week. I make it a thing to work randomly at a cafe, shared workspace, or just go to meetings. So, when my husband who WFH sees that I’ve packed my bag he doesn’t ask questions. I have a few shared workspace memberships too to cover my tracks as there are locations all over. On my two WFH days I spend the days with my affair partner in hotel rooms,” one woman confided.
One guy advised, “having regular “business travel or business dinners” even if you don’t regularly travel for work.”
But other unfaithful spouses begged to differ, one saying, “100% virtual here and it is a PAIN.” Another cheater agreed moaning, “I fought and clawed for a virtual job, and regret it now.” Sucks for them…

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