Have you got a ‘work wife or husband’? These amusing terms have appeared across platforms like TikTok alongside amusing videos about how we have replica ‘families’ at work. Here, mental health expert Noel McDermott looks at how they in fact point to a deep truth and may explain many of the dynamics at work that can baffle, frustrate, annoy us or in the case of these videos make us laugh in identification.

Psychotherapist Noel McDermott is an expert on mental health in the workplace and runs Mental Health Works Ltd. He works alongside employers providing wellbeing in the workplace advice and solutions, teaching them tools to keep staff healthy.