The phrase "The Office Wife" typically refers to a specific, historically significant piece of literature, though it can also refer to the sociological concept of intimate workplace platonic relationships.
The secretarial pool was a primary destination for these women. Unlike the factory work of the previous century, office work required "feminine" traits: docility, organization, and nurturance. "The Office Wife" captures this paradox: the professional woman is valued not just for her technical skills (typing, shorthand), but for her ability to perform domesticity in a corporate setting. The story illustrates that the office wife was a role requiring a specific performance of gender, one that offered women a degree of power and proximity to authority but denied them the title and security of a true partner.
Keep the connection. Lose the label. You don't need a marital metaphor to validate a professional friendship.
Sociologist Arlie Hochschild later coined the term "emotional labor" to describe the management of feelings to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. "The Office Wife" is an early literary depiction of this phenomenon. The protagonist is not merely typing; she is managing the emotional climate of the executive suite.