In an age where hustle culture reigns supreme and everyone’s side hustle has a side hustle, even a little positivity can feel like a luxury. The economy is spiralling, hemlines are getting longer, TikTok won’t stop talking about the lipstick theory, and Gen Z is now a major part of the workforce just in time for a recession and a world at the brink of war. Yes, the news is bleak, and deadlines are forever looming. And romance? Who has the time?
But what if I told you, amid the chaos of unread emails and passive-aggressive Teams messages, there’s something to be said about the good ol’ office crush. A bright spark in the Monday morning gloom. Whether it’s someone who always shows up early to Zoom calls or the coworker who makes coffee breaks suspiciously more fun, an office crush brings a dose of harmless excitement. Suddenly, morning check-ins don’t seem so bad, and even those water-cooler conversations start to feel like scenes from a romcom set in late capitalism.
Case in point: 24-year-old Ananya*, who joined a newsroom straight out of college—idealistic, single, and promptly thrown into the worst shifts. “The only thing that kept me going,” she says, “was a crush on a senior who barely knew my name.” Said senior would appear during her godforsaken late-night shifts, and just seeing his jacket hanging over his chair made her heart do jazz hands. “It all started after he held a door open for me on a random Thursday. That was it. Boom. Butterflies. Suddenly, every group email with his name on it felt like a love letter from the universe.” They eventually became friends, but she swears it was that silly, silent crush that helped her survive the soul-crushing probation period. Honestly, same. Who needs therapy when you have a mysterious cutie two floors down and just enough delulu to get through Q1? And turns out your delulu little office crush might actually be good for you—Sheya Kurian finds out how.
