What's a good, non-awkward thing to say when being introduced to the significant other of your co-worker/boss when your co-worker/boss has said mainly less-than-nice things about them?

Just say “It’s great to meet you”

Nothing more.

“It’s nice to finally put a face to the name!” (Smile).

“It’s nice to meet you.” Full stop.

“Oh, you must be the dumb bitch who doesn’t know how he likes his Scotch after 10 years of marriage!”

How about “it’s nice to meet you.” And if you need to keep your mouth moving, you can add “isn’t this a great party/can I get you a drink/I like your shoes…”

“So nice to meet you!” and smile. That’s all you need to do.

Lie through your teeth: “I’ve heard so many great things about you!” Etc. Then everyone wins, because you can amuse yourself with the lie, she thinks her husband says nice stuff, and he appreciates you covering for him.

Thanks all! This was much simpler than I thought. tend to make things complicated

@nxknxk Perfect, yes, I love that; a true improvement on “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Is this just one of those grin-and-bear it social scenarios?

Treat them like any other new acquaintance – assume they are a great person you could like, ask about them, listen, make eye contact, etc.

“Nice to meet you”.

Here lies something vulgar that was deleted by myself because I knew the mods would do it anyway.

I’d say the same thing I always say when I meet someone…Nice to meet you or How do you do? Can’t go wrong with generic.

I am bothered by lying. If it isn’t nice to meet the person, or I haven’t heard anything great about them, I can’t bring myself to say that I have.

If pressed, I will usually make a joke that still involves telling the complete truth.

I like @delirium‘s and @Likeradar‘s suggestions best.

“Hello. How do you do?”

I can’t imagine that the remarks made about that person don’t reflect the remarker’s bias. It’s up to me to discern the general mien of that person for myself and not allow the boss’s opinion to shape it for me.

I had a boss once upon a time who talked about his wife something awful at work, the point of it being, as it turns out, was that he was trying to convince himself it was OK to cheat on her with a much younger woman. The wife herself was a very nice woman.

“It’s nice to finally meet the boss’ better half.”
See ya…Gary/wtf

Does the boss have kids? Meet the wife and immediately say something like, “Good to meet you. Mr. so and so says your daughter Suzy is star of the basketball team. How long has she been playing?” Or something like that. Parents love talking about their kids and she might not mind if you immediately change the subject.

“You’re Ed’s wife? Huh! You seem perfectly normal!?!”

I find “Hello” to be a pretty good ice breaker. Afterwards let the other person lead the conversation and ask innocuous questions about whatever they are talking about. Not only will they feel like you’ve been enthralled by their conversation.. the fact that you cually participated (even if it’s just occasionally asking random questions related to the topic) will make the person feel you’ve both took an equal stake in the topic. Helps you direct the conversation without actually revealing anything or actually having to engage in actual sharing.

Ambiguity is your friend, but you can stick it to your boss a bit at the same time – “Great to meet you finally, I’ve heard so much about you from <bosses name>”. Then move quickly on to something about the party, weather, stock market etc.

“So, I hear you’re a bitch and a whore. Hi.
What?! No, I said I itch to get on the floor… the… dance floor.”

You say, “Pleased to meet you….are you enjoying the party? or how is your holiday going so far?” then you recommend the dip.

Dang, your nose is not that big and you are much taller than I expected.

“I usually don’t find facial hair on women to be attractive, but you really pull it off…”

In UK a good generalised response is “How do you do?”