You can go literal years without ever meeting your coworker’s partner. Ben from Fail Blog’s boyfriend is an incredibly Maris-from-Fraiser-esque figure in my life. I’ve heard about him many times, have never met him, and probably never will, and that’s okay. If you think hearing about Maris, Bob Sacamano, Mrs. Columbo, or Socko is fun on TV, it’s only slightly less fun to have one of those people in your real life. I wish my coworkers’ partners got into as many silly situations as Maris Crane, but that would probably only make my life marginally better and their lives so much worse. 

There’s definitely a time and a place to meet your coworker’s partners, but it’s awkward when they show up to events that they aren’t invited to, like office happy hours or team breakfast meetings. If it’s inappropriate to show up to a social function uninvited, it’s 10 times worse to do so for work.