Tuesday 6 December 2011

The Office Crush

The Office Crush is a great thing. It can add colour to a monochrome day, make even the dullest of meetings exciting and provides gossip and giggles to your workplace - especially a work place that is predominantly female.

The all female Comms team is experiencing a collective crush at the moment which is providing much amusement, lots of fluttering of eye lashes, increased heart rates and, in my case, the inability not to blush when he speaks to me. The OC in question is currently acting as our boss, not a role he had expected to take on as he is on secondment from a big corporation, but one which he has embraced with open arms, a rather lovely smile and the occasional look of fear at venturing into the Lionesses' Den. It is probably an insight into the female psyche he would rather have not had.

Initially, the team was firmly divided into two camps. One was Team OC (myself and the Journo) and one was, well, they simply couldn't see what Team OC saw. That changed suddenly one afternoon. Team Non- OC (the Aussie and the PR Guru ) and myself had been to a ball a couple of weekends previously and we had decided to get a few group photos taken. When we received the link through to view the pics, we printed some off to put on the wall. They were sitting on the PR Guru's desk when the OC picked them up with what I would like to say could be described as an admiring glance. 'Well, one sure-fire way to piss my wife off would be to send her these photos and tell her these are the girls I work with.' And with those words, Team OC immediately doubled in size. The Aussie and the PR Guru, so adamant that he wasn't anything special, had been struck by Cupid's arrow.

Just when we felt he couldn't get any better, he did - with a promise of a Comms team weekday, pre-Christmas bonding sesh visit to Monkey World to see my adopted orangutan that the girls gave me for my birthday. A whole day, just us and the OC! Excitement reached new heights.

It should be pointed out at this stage that the Journo, the PR Guru and the Aussie all have other halves. The Journo, happily married but a firm believer in window shopping ('Well, there's no harm in looking is there?'), is part time in the office but she certainly makes the most of her days in. She flirts her little socks off and I very much admire her cultivated yet unassuming hair flick which she has perfected over the years. The PR Guru remains calm and in control of any OC situation she finds herself in, only occasionally letting her guard down when he isn't around and succumbing to the girlish giggles the Journo and I are almost permanently in. The Aussie is her usual sweet natured self, willing to help him at any time, guiding him out of his very corporate habits he frequently slips back into and relishing the teasing that she gives me over the office chat system. Occasional giggles escape from the pair of us as a result of these clandestine talks, giving the game away. The others know why but the poor, confused OC will look up at us, ask what's happened now only to be met with a hasty barge of 'nothing, don't worry, nothing at all!' He shakes his head, no doubt things to himself 'bloody women' and resumes his work. I simply remain a blushing, mumbling wreck.

Perhaps also relevant to this tale of office love and lust is the OC's own relationship status. It would be wonderful to think this story has the potential to go somewhere, a 21st Century fairytale of love born out of the stresses of a charity Comms environment. But alas, dear reader, this will remain very much an unrequited OC. He is married. Very married. And she's pregnant. This has added another dimension to the whole situation - what is she like, this lady who won the heart of the OC? We are yet to find out but when we do, you will be the first to know. We are all rooting for something distinctly average....

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(NB - I'm afraid this will remain photoless for fear of making our OC resemble Andy MacNab)