Stuff You Should Know: Workplace Romance

Stuff You Should Know: Workplace Romance

By Elaine Chaney

Even though lots of companies frown on it, the fact that workplace romance happens anyway should come as a shock to no one. With a good portion of the population spending at least eight hours per day jammed in an office with the opposite sex, it’s every bit as common as you think it is. Fortunately, all sorts of guidelines exist for people hoping to navigate the murky waters of workplace boning.

Check your local HR department for starters. They probably have some pamphlets handy about the ins and outs (ha!) of dating coworkers. Or, there are plenty of movies where the subject has been dealt with. We learned pretty much everything ever from television and movies. Maybe we’ll pick up some new tricks after watching the epic workplace love triangle unfold in Bad Teacher this coming Friday. Maybe you will too.

Or, maybe, you’ll turn to the same place you do for all of your other information, right here at The Smoking Jacket. Good call, we know a lot. Especially stuff about illicit affairs.

Here are five things you should know about pulling off a workplace romance…

1. Find Someone Near But Far

If you’re the boss, supervisor or manager, it might be a good idea not to date anybody that works under you. A supervisor/underling hook-up is a giant mess waiting to happen. If you break up on a bad note, (and really, what break up doesn’t end on a bad note?) a scorned employee can make the claim that she didn’t want to date the manager but felt like she couldn’t say no.

There could also be claims of favoritism, sexual harassment or discrimination. But if you insist on drinking the coffee from the company pot, make sure you lay out the terms in writing that both of you are engaging in a consensual relationship. Having a fling with fine print at the bottom isn’t the sexiest, but neither is being unemployed and having to move back in with your mom. Besides, making a chick fill out paperwork just so she can sleep with you makes you look like a boss!

2. Go Slow

A tight ass and a low cut blouse do not a smart office romance make. Before jumping into anything, get to know the real person behind the computer screen. Does she have a husband or a boyfriend? Is she a gossip or a drama queen? Does she bring up her personal life to anyone who’ll listen at the cooler? Or is she a workaholic man-hater? Getting into a relationship can possibly get you fired from your job if you’re not careful, so make sure you’re pursuing someone who’s worth the risk and isn’t going to host an office fiesta with a piñata effigy of you hanging in the meeting room if things turn sour.

3. Be Smart

Do your research and find out if the company has any policies about dating in the workplace. If they do, comply with the policies as much as you can. If they don’t or if they discourage it, then branding each other with cookie sized hickies probably isn’t such a good idea.

4. Keep it Professional

Emailing each other love notes, making lovey eyes from across the cubicles and Xeroxing each other’s documents in the supply room (we don’t exactly know what that means but it sounds like it’s against company policy) is not only annoying to all your other co-workers, it distracts you from your work and could possibly get both of you in very big trouble. After work, you’re totally free to fax each other as much as you want; however, at work, the priority should always be work.

5. Be Discreet

When you find yourself involved with someone from your office, it’s best to keep it just between the both of you. Too many people being privy to the relationship and too much office involvement can lead into jealousy from other employees; he-says/she-says scenarios, intense scrutiny and rumors that will probably lead into an ugly and very public break-up with the whole office as your audience. Although there’s a chance that your relationship can work out, there’s also a chance that it won’t and if that’s the case, you’ll want to make sure that both your bags of personal crap don’t stink up your professional life as well.
 
 
 
Originally appeared on TheSmokingJacket.com