Workplace Romance: Should You Go For It?

One of the downturns of loving your job is that you tend to spend a lot of time in the office. It also works for high-pressure jobs and those having long 12-hours shifts. As a result, there are people you work close to, and naturally, these are favorable conditions to develop romantic relationships.

Whether to have or not to have an affair at workplace has always been a painful issue. While the choice is strictly individual, there are things to consider and weigh up before you make a decision.

On the positive side, romantic relationships at work help employees to tackle work stress. If you look forward to seeing your significant other every morning, even the hardest day at work will not scare you off. It will also inspire you for innovation and boost creativity (in most cases). Personal relationships glue up the team and have a positive impact on their productivity. It means a higher level of involvement and enthusiasm about a particular job. Naturally, two people engaged in a relationship will make up a better team.

On the other hand, romance at work is a sure source of trouble. Even if we omit the fact that they’re often forbidden, there are still serious considerations to take into account.

The simplest one is – what if you break up (and statistics shows that the absolute majority of workplace relationships go bust)? Will you be comfortable with this particular person after you go different ways? Will it not hinder your team work?

Do not forget to think about people around. You are confusing them a lot. Even if you do your best to conceal what is going on, they will most surely guess and start asking questions. As quite often personal attitude toward a person takes advantage over professional, once your colleagues figure out your affair they will no longer rely on your opinion as objective. And if you have a position in management and your SO is your subordinate, it brings the entire pool of trouble. You are not allowed to promote him or her without rumors spreading with the speed of light. Ready to be seen as giving undeserved favors? Then go for it.

A general rule of thumb here would be to ask yourself, whether the game is worth the candles. If you don’t really care about your job and on the contrary do care about the coworker you developed romantic relationships to a lot, there is no harm trying. However, it might be a fling that will end up in a month and make you look unprofessional or even worse. There are cases when work relationships lead to life-long marriages, but their percentage is sadly low. Ready to go for it? Then at least do not engage in a relationship with your boss. Can’t resist it? Then make sure both of you are professional enough to keep things calm in case of failure. There is the best advice you can get in this matter. The rest is up to you.

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