Things Top Consider If You Work With Him

I remember being one of the first to arrive in math class in seventh grade because I wanted to snag a seat close to my crush, Jonathan. Jonathan was about 5 inches shorter than I was and much better at integers. Learning was more fun with him around.

Fast forward a decade to my first job out of college. I dressed up in my finest sweater set to impress a new employee a few cubicles over. After a few weeks of eyeing each other in meetings, he asked me out and we began a covert office romance that lasted a year. One whole year!

While the relationship started in the office, it did not end because of the office.

As far as I know, our office mates had no idea about the relationship as we made a conscious decision to separate business and pleasure. That meant no hooking up in the paper supply room -- and not just because we wanted to avoid paper cuts.

It's no surprise that some singles are hooking up at work since this is where they spend the bulk of their days. I know a number of people who have found true love in the office and are now married.

However, critics of office romances certainly have a point. If you're more focused on your crush than on your work, you may not meet deadlines or assigned tasks and this will negatively contribute to your office environment and productivity.

Moreover, if you are involved with a 'higher up' you run the risk of missing out on a promotion or getting one that others will be cynical of. For this reason, if you date in the office, better to date someone in another department, keep the relationship quiet for the first few months (until you know it's really going somewhere), and set ground rules in advance.

Dating a co-worker is not a 'safe' option for a handful of reasons, but it's not a terrible thing either.

After all, I am a firm believer that in dating, we all have to take risks to find success.

So, if you're going to take the risk, be smart about it. Do not date your married boss and do not share details with every office mate or the water cooler chatter will heat up fast.

Here are some other rules of managing office romance:
1. Do not blab to the whole office the night you first hook up. Confide in your friends in the 'real world'
2. Figure out if it's a fun roll in the hay or if you see long-term potential with this person. If it's fun sex, it may not be worth taking the risk but if it's looking like you may have a future with your office mate, it may be worth exploring.
3. And finally -- if it's explicitly stated in your contract that office romance is against company policy ask yourself -- is it worth losing your job over your crush? Maybe.

The bottom line is that office romance happens. In fact, I'm betting someone down the hall from you is having a little office fling of her own as you're reading this article...

So -- weigh the risks against the rewards when evaluating the possibility of an office romance. Do a solid cost-benefit analysis. I'm sure my math crush would approve.



Photo source.

Andrea Syrtash
		About the author:
		Andrea Syrtash is a Canadian born dating & relationship expert, advice columnist and author. She has contributed to over a dozen advice books and is the author of "He's Just Not Your Type (And That's a Good Thing)". Her relationship advice has been featured in various media outlets across the country including on Oprah.com, The Today Show, The CBS Early Show, VH1 and on Canada AM, among others. She lives with her (non type) husband in New York City. For more please visit www.andreasyrtash.com
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