5 Reasons Not to Look for Love in your Office
Dating for professionals can be so much easier if you look at dating other professionals – but not those based in your office. Overall, much better to search for a date somewhere else. It can be hard if you are a working professional – where do you get the time to meet new people if you are concentrating on finishing that project for Friday’s meeting? The answer is, you guessed it, a professional dating site. Just think, you can browse profiles while commuting on the train or last thing at night between brushing your teeth and slipping beneath the duvet.
Check out our list of the top five things about dating someone else in your office that could turn your date from fun to fired in so many flirtatious emails…
1) People are attracted to power.
Who fits into that category at work? Oh yeah, the boss! This is a bad idea. No matter how much you find your boss attractive, or how much you think they might be flirting with you when they tell you to have that report on their desk by 5pm…let me repeat. Bad idea. In 1% of cases, this might work out into a long term relationship with a fun anecdote about how you met, but the majority of cases end up awkward, difficult and unbearable. How would you like your ex telling you what to do on a daily basis? Didn’t think so.
2) The temptation to flirt at the office.
Email monitoring is not a new invention. It is also perfectly acceptable for a company that pays you money – based on the idea that you spend your time working for them – monitors your outgoing mail, to check that you are in fact working and not describing tonight’s big date plans in intimate detail to your colleague across the room. Not to mention that committing such details to email, which can be easily shared, is pretty silly. This leads us to…
3) Got a juicy secret? People just love to gossip!
The moment anyone else at your office gets wind, even it is the smallest suspicion, of your dating a co-worker…Well, remember the expression ’round the office watercooler?’ It’s not fun to be the centre of focus for pointed looks and elbow nudges. Just think, if the relationship turns sour you’ll have to deal with the rumours for a long time. If you’ve already started dating someone in your office, it might be wise to check with HR that there is nothing in your contract forbidding such behaviour otherwise your job could be a risk.
4) Harrassment
So you had a fling, it was fun but then you broke it off. If your co-working ex isn’t feeling so great about this, do not underestimate the possibility of a messy, humiliating time of it at work. You could be sued for sexual harassment, brought up on all manner of charges. It is not just women who can be seen as the victims here either. A female boss breaking up with a subordinate male colleague can still be in for a league of problems, both professionally and personally. These types of charges don’t just resolve either, they’ll stick around for a long time and may cost you your job.
5) Acting professional at work
Ever been in a relationship where you never chat, hold hands, kiss or hug? I didn’t think so. Imagine how your credibility instantly sinks when you pitch an idea to your boss while holding your colleague’s hand? How the gossip bubbles up in your wake once someone catches you giving each other a quick hug and a smooch in the elevator on the way up to the office. How you get fired after getting jiggy with it in the stationary cupboard. Unless you can completely ignore any unprofessional feelings while at the office, having a relationship with a colleague cannot help but affect your work.