Monday, January 10, 2011

10 Reasons to Avoid Office Romance

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 Written by Guest Blogger, Laura Trutna 

 Laura Trutna is a guest blogger for Pounding the Pavement and a writer on the subject of  technical schools  for the Guide to Career Education.

1.  The Office Becomes an Extended Walk of Shame: You thought what happens in private stays in private? Of course. But then you fall asleep at your office Romeo's apartment. No big deal, you'll just run home and change in the morning. Oh, but you live uptown and you'll never make it back to work in time? Uh-oh. Now Becky two cubicles over notices you're wearing the same blouse with the mustard stain from yesterday. Okay, you'll just laugh nervously, brush it off. Only 7 ½ hours left in the work day, and it'll never happen again. Until it does.


2.  Water Cooler Gossip: This was bound to happen. No one but you blushes when Mail Room Mark walks by. Maybe you even feel a little sassy on Monday and throw him a wink. Oh, now it's on. Coworkers can see something is happening, they wonder if it's mutual. You can deal with it right up until you get recommended for that sexual harassment seminar. Try not to take it too personally, but maybe that good-job-completing-your-report-sweetie bootie tap wasn't as clandestine as you thought.

3.  Favoritism: Maybe you aren't the type to keep your love a secret. Kudos! But Bob has noticed that you seem to finish those spreadsheets faster when the request comes from a certain someone, and he doesn't appreciate it. Or worse, the object of your affection is your superior and now the positive review you received this quarter is under scrutiny. Accusations of favoritism are flying left and right, and there's nothing you can do about it.

4.  Proximity Does Not Make the Heart Grow Fonder: Dinner last night was so romantic. And breakfast this morning. And lunch this afternoon. And the love notes in your in-tray. And the emails. And hey, that argument last night wasn't a big deal, you'll have time to cool down in your adjacent cubicles before your date again tonight.

5.  Secrecy is Only Hot for So long: You are keeping your dating life a secret? Naughty you! Of course, all those stolen glances and secret rendezvous in the vending machine alcove are pretty hot. But the lies are starting to get exhausting. And this afternoon you got stood up in the supplies closet because your better-half got pulled into an emergency meeting. Romantic...

6.  You May Stay Together Longer Than is Wise: You've finally decided that enough is enough. But what to do? They're not ready to break up, and you really don't feel like getting bitter memos every hour. And then there’s the discomfort of sitting across from them in meetings. So you'll stick it out just a little longer. Then a little longer. And longer... and longer...

7.  The Fallout: It's everything bad about a breakup: the blame, the maudlin voice mails, the bickering over returning Creed CD's and Led Zeppelin t-shirts; except you share a breakroom and are together 40 hours a week. Moving on? Good luck!

8.  Future Discomfort: There are an unlimited number of scenarios that would have been moderately uncomfortable to begin with but are now exponentially more so; competing for the same promotion, collaborating on a project, requesting edits on a subpar piece of work. The list goes on....

9.  Lasting Effects: No matter how nice your coworkers are to your face, they're not going to forget you diddled your coworker. The YouTube videos in your email inbox say so. Worse yet, your manager wasn't completely oblivious and now wonders if you can be objective enough to be project manager. Ouch.

10.  Firing: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Many companies frown on, or even forbid, office romance. Don't play with fire. Pun intended.

 

Coming soon from Love Kudos: 

10 Ways to Make Office Romance Work!


1 comment:

Speed Dating Leeds said...

Of course, love is a great feeling, but I'm deeply convinced, that there's no plase for this feeling at work. Surely, we can't foresee it, be we can somehow control our emotions so as not to be the object of discussions.

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