Dating at Work: Is It a Good Idea?

You just started a new job. You have a great salary,  a nice office, an assistant and a parking spot. You have everything you could have imagined for being at this stage of your career. So, you consider yourself really lucky. But since you have devoted so much to developing your career, your social life, and more particularly your love life has really suffered. You simply don’t have time to meet new people, let alone find the time to meet attractive singles that might seduce your attention away from your job. And because of that, you’ve considered dating at work. But it is a good idea? Probably not, and we’ll tell you why. It’s probably better to meet a hottie that you can meet at the gym through some fitness dating site, rather than picking up numbers in the break room.

Read on…

The Scenario

Think about it, do you really want to risk everything you’ve worked hard for? Take this scenario: you come to work one day and notice that there is a new employee in your office. Throughout the day, you keep crossing paths and locking eyes, and you soon realize that you have some chemistry. Then at a company meeting you find out you will be working closely with this person. Over the next little while, you spend so much time with this person, that the job starts spilling over into your after-hours, but because you both want to do well, you put those extra hours in. And due to the mutual attraction, you don’t even charge over-time. But that much proximity, and so many working hours together, on-the-fly smoke breaks and business meals, connect you. So much so, that one night, after working late and not being able to stand the heat of the energy between you two, dams burst and passions runs free: you hook up and it’s awesome. It’s everything you ever hoped for. You guys indulge yourselves for the remainder of the project and deliver an explosive project. It’s a stunning success on all sides, right?

The Reality Check

Wrong. That connection you made was based on some high that was inflated by the importance of your work, which is actually your first passion. Having someone sexually attractive to work closely with on something you enjoy together, gives a false sense of connection, that usually, once the project is over – so is the chemistry. How many times does a hot hookup at work turn into an awkward work situation on the job, where as the heat dies down, and the hormones fade, you’re left with dealing, on a daily basis the actual person, who’ll find out is not as great as you initially thought. Being exposed to someone so regularly means you will see their bad days, their downsides and unappealing side much quicker than if you met someone on a fitness dating site, where you actually might have something in common. The let down is usually huge and ugly, and then if one person feels rejected or rebuffed, that animosity can grow to almost unbearable levels. Do you really want to risk your ideal job situation for a passing and fast-fizzling affair? Better to leave the steamy stockroom sessions to the interns, and keep your work space for what it’s meant for: Work.