If you’ve ever had a retail job, or any type of job in which you have many co-workers with lots of interaction between each other, then no doubt you’ve heard the “guess who slept with who” rumors. Well they may not be rumors. In fact, office flings are easier and more common than ever. 50% of business professionals admit to participating in a workplace romance. That’s up from 47% in 2007. So as you can see, office flings are very much still alive.
More women are working these days, unlike 50 years ago. And since there are longer workdays and later marriages, workplaces and offices these days are filled with young ambitious single, and not-so-single, hot women. It’s still a modern offline dating pool, which has lead to different types of office affairs.
Some great, some deadly. If you haven’t had one yet, here are 3 types of office affairs i recommend, and 1 to stay away from!.
4 Types of Office Affairs
1: The Late Night Hookup
It’s easy to sleep with a co-worker. It’s harder to face them in the morning or at work. If things work out, you both act like nothing happened. You see each other at work giving little glances knowing you got away with something. But when one of you think it was a mistake, that’s when it gets awkward. It can lead to years of trying to avoid each other in the halls or in the lunchroom. So if you know it’s a fling and you know it’s just sex, leave it at that. Just sex.
2: The Work Wife/ Husband
Sometimes an office “fling” doesn’t have to involve sex. Having a work wife or husband doesn’t mean you are married. But as far as everyone else is concerned, there’s something going on. You have daily lunches, “meetings” behind closed doors to gossip, back and forth texts followed by little chuckles, you name it. During work hours you are closer to each other than ever your actual spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend.
There’s an upside to having a work spouse. You guys have work stuff in common. You both understand each other when it comes to the stresses of the workplace. It is natural that you develop a bond after months, maybe years of working together. You may have no desire to sleep with this person nor should you. I have to warn you, sex will change everything. You work great together because you’re very close, and it’s fun to flirt. But if you turn it into an affair or a fling, that will bring unavoidable drama.
3: The Not-So Secret
More than half of office romancers try to keep their fling a secret. They will use tricks like leaving for lunch a couple minutes after one another, splitting up a couple blocks away from work, leaving work events separately, interacting infrequently while working, you name it. But guess what, they’re not fooling anyone.
I was dating a girl in secret while working in an electronic store. When we finally came out to our co-workers 2 months later, we were greeted with a “Uh, we know”
It really makes no sense to keep it a “secret” if everyone knows. But there’s something sexy about hiding a relationship. When you can sneak in that kiss or hug or small grope of each other, it’s exhilarating. The risk of being “found out” is both terrifying and exciting.
4: The Boss
Warning! Enter at Your Own Risk! This is a big no-no. I have seen first hand what happens when a boss-worker affair doesn’t work out. Sometimes the subordinate gets “special treatment” such as a promotion, and other co workers will see it as favoritism. If they get suspended or fired, the criticism automatically falls on the boss.
It may sound sexy to fuck the boss, especially to young guys in they’re 20’s. But it is very, very rare that it ends good.
One of my male co-workers when I was selling insurance slept with our female manager at the time after a night out with the office staff. It happened on more than one occasion. He boasted about it to me and our other male co workers. Well it turns out the manager was expecting more and it turned ugly when his girlfriend showed up to bring him lunch one day. From that point on the manager would give him extra work, was rude to him, and try to belittle him in public until he was forced to quit a few weeks later. If she wasn’t the boss, it would’ve still been ugly and awkward but not the way it happened, and he may have kept his job.
Office affairs don’t always necessarily end bad. In fact, more than half of my friends ended up marrying a coworker. The other half usually a high school sweetheart.
Should you date a co-worker?
Yes! I recommend it. Why not? I’ve dated a few co-workers. Some ended badly, some ended good. One never got started but i know it would’ve been great since we are still friends. From the moment you meet you have something in common. The workplace. You spend months if not years around each other, getting to know each other. I’ve seen office romances blossom into successful marriages. If you can make lifelong friends in the workplace, who’s to say you can’t make a lifelong partner.
Just don’t let it interfere with your work productivity.
See you next time:
Geo