Are Your Co-Workers Hooking Up?
In case you haven't heard, work is the singles bar of the 21st century. (Just ask David Letterman!) Office hookups are hardly unusual these days. According to one survey, 82% of respondents knew of an illicit romance going on in their office.
Unfortunately, for the rest of us who aren't getting busy in the boardroom, it can be a little awkward. Think your co-workers are hitting the sheets? Here's how to handle it.
Don't think about it. Canoodling co-workers often produces that "Ew, gross!" reaction. After all, your relationship with your co-workers is borderline familial. Yes, you're irritated by their idiosyncrasies, but you love them anyway (right?). Keep your workplace productive by banishing all thoughts of your horny co-workers from your brain. It isn't your business anyway.
Don't fawn over the flirting. It doesn't matter if you have a hunch there's some interoffice shacking up, or if you know for sure it's going on. Either way. you should do your best to steer clear of the situation and encourage everyone else to do the same. Don't worry about what your co-workers are doing after 5 p.m. unless it starts to impact a project or job performance.
Don't gossip. It isn't your place to spread rumors about what Tom and Tara are doing after hours. If they decide to come out of the closet with their interoffice relationship, that's great. Until then, don't be the person who is whispering and watching. It just makes you look like you don't have a life.
Don't get involved. Most clandestine office romances crash and burn quickly. Avoid becoming a part of the awkwardness by not getting involved in the first place. This means keeping your distance when your office-mate is baiting you with stories about what she did after the late meeting. After all, you don't really want to know, do you?
Don't tattle. Some companies have policies about "co-worker socializing." In other offices there's no policy, but romance isn't exactly encouraged. Think very carefully before deciding to tell a boss that your co-workers are romantically involved. What's your motivation? Would you be telling the higher-ups simply because you think interoffice romance is wrong and you think they should know about it? Are you expecting some sort of reprimand for the guilty parties? Are you just doing it to be mean? Unless you know that the after-hours romance is affecting work performance, company confidentiality, or the status of a major project, you should probably keep your lips sealed and your nose to the grindstone. (Then just in case your time comes, you can expect the same in return!)
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Nicole Williams: Setting Up Your Co-Workers
If you decide to brave the matchmaking mayhem, make sure the conditions are right (and be prepared for an inevitable awkward moment or two).
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In these days of massive unemployment, cut hours, and downsizing, you must keep your personal life private and your public personna beyond reproach, for professionalism and networking.
The people that you work with are not a source of friends, confidants, lovers or playmates. Go home, bond with your cat, your cockatoo or your family. Email and the internet has blurred this line, but it is essential to maintain to avoid all sorts of career killers.
I'm not guiltless when it comes to office affairs. Still, the best policy is to keep your personal life and business life separate.
In these days of hard times and massive layoffs, my advice is very simple. Shut up, do your job and keep it in your pants. Treat every woman at work like she was your mother or your sister. If you can do that you've got a much better chance of keeping that job.
I should have said as long as they are screwing each other and not screwing me over, I'm good.
who cares....people are nosey...Like the article said...if it doesn't effect you or your performance, leave it alone....
As a wise person once said to me, it's not the sex-partner shopping that's the problem, it's the returns and exchanges.
it's all good until someone gets hurt...that's usually the person stuck doing the job of the supervisor's or boss' "distracted" lover(s). Or, when the double standard's kick in. Better to know who's w/ who...especially when office politics make strange bedfellow!!
*sigh* no I didn't read the article
One of my coworkers was having an affair with the boss. One night she suggested they film it. Soon she began taking days off then it turned into weeks. Turns out she was threatening to post the video on MySpace if he didn't pay her a whole paycheck no matter how much time she missed. Her downfall -- and his -- occurred when she started bragging about having the boss under her thumb.
Everybody wants to do the boogalooo!
Are Your Co-Workers Hooking Up? Yes. Yes, they are.
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