To be confused by DH colleague behaviour

[saythewordgoose]

Hi so DH's younger work colleague admitted fancying him a while back, and apparently afterwards she was incredibly embarrassed, asked him to forget all about it and felt awful about the fact she had said it when she knows he has a wife (me!) and kids.
However, she still texts him/emails him etc constantly at work for petty things, reminding him to do things, asking little questions, etc. What I simply don't understand is what she is getting out of it. The texts/emails are totally unnecessary and things he wouldn't get from other colleagues. However none of it is flirty or over the line. I just don't get why she would do it, surely she either should make a move on him (obviously I don't want this to happen but it seems more obvious!) or just leave him alone!
Can anyone enlighten me on this mindset?

In what context did she admit to fancying your husband? How do you know this?

Sounds like your husband has been encouraging his colleague to contact him with these petty requests actually.

Why are you so keen to understand her motivation, why not put the spotlight on him? Is he her manager? Why would she ask him? Is there only the two of them or more of a team?

I think this is fairly simple - this woman has a crush on your husband! She is trying to get his attention by constantly sending him these messages. I cant for the life of me understand why your DH is getting a hard time here - I think he has acted entirely properly, telling his wife all the details and responding politely but briefly. He does have to work with her, after all, and if it does come to the point where he has to tell her to back off, it’s going to be pretty unpleasant. Two things I would suggest (echoing other posters) are to only respond during working hours and to have a very informal chat with someone in HR just to make sure he is covered.

What is the working relationship between your DH and this colleague?

If he is her line manager then he needs to deal with this is a professional way, he cannot just ignore her. If he finds it awkward to raise it with her directly, he should ask HR to have a word with her.

It sounds like she's trying to progress the relationship.

If she was genuinely embarrassed and had got the message that he's not available, she would have backed off. Instead, she's continued, even messaging him out of work.

I think he needs to make it clear that he's only available for work queries during working hours. Maybe he needs to change his personal number and switch his work phone off when he's at home?