With the holidays ending, I would first like to wish you all a fantastic new year filled with love, health and fun. January is typically a time for catching-up over drinks with friends and colleagues. Recently I met with my good friend Thomas, who is a good-looking successful manager at a large corporation. He is usually far too focused on work to have a fulfilling private life.
Mixing business and pleasure
I hadn't seen Thomas in a long time and after talking about his job over a few drinks, the conversation surprisingly shifted to another topic. Thomas had recently hired a new personal assistant and could not stop talking about her. "Seriously the moment I hired Karen I didn't see this coming. It all started slow and innocent but it all changed that night when we needed to work until late." Currently, most of their workdays end with hot, steam sex sessions all over his office. Thomas, a smart guy, realized this situation could impact his career, but little did he know that the work place is one of the top ten places to meet a spouse. That evening I decided that love and the workplace would be the subject for my first article of 2016.
Facts and Figures
In my research I came across a highly interesting survey on the subject. Apparently love at work is more acceptable than ever! Vault.com findings indicate that 1 out of 10 of their respondents met their spouse or partner at work and almost 50 percent participated in an affair at some point in their career. This could be excellent news for my friend, Thomas!
Take it easy
As someone who is part of the 50 percent of the professionals who been involved with a colleague in the past, I came up with a few helpful tips to help you better determine your situation:
- Just excitement -- It's good advice to avoid dipping your pen in company ink, especially if you know that the affair is just a temporary exciting experience. If you are just in it for the thrills, be smart and stop it as fast as you can because this type of situation has the potential to harm your career.
Two worlds
Beginning a relationship at work makes things complicated, but it's not impossible. If you can keep your relationship and work separate and take care not to mix these two worlds, you will greatly simplify things. Here are examples of what to separate:
- The professional world where Thomas must be critical about Karen's performance, without Karen taking his comments and evaluation personally.
If you can glide between the two worlds without too much drama, there is a fair chance your relationship will be successful. Finally, I advise that you take it step by step, first informing your supervisor, then your colleagues. Ideally, you and your partner would not work in the same office or company, but since these are key meeting places, it's important to be smart and to handle the situation carefully to avoid harming your career. Yes love at work, it is a lot of work but it can pay off and makes a great story!