Before you indulge in some brewing office romance then you should know that it can extremely tricky endeavor. And you need to handle it with extra care. Any romantic relationship, in general, can lead to marriage. But you should always have a backup plan for every possible scenario.
While hiding your racing hearts from your colleagues you need to be careful and also after a fight, you should be careful that your personal feelings will not hamper your work and your productivity. A Viking study took place in the UK regarding office romance and the reports are quite sticking. Office workers from the age group of 25 to 34 were asked if there are involved with any of their colleagues.
- 74% said yes, they have been with a colleague.
- 53% said they would like to do the same in the future as well.
- 29% confessed that they have had a one-night stand with a co-worker.
- 52% believe that office romance decreases productivity and creative notions of an employee.
- And most of them believed that hampering your work or not, involved in an office romance or not, any office romance will ensure one thing, ‘Gossips’.
Before you reach the tips of maintaining your romance you should know some dos and don’ts of office romance;
Do’s:
- Be alert about the risks before getting involved with someone at work.
- Know about the company policies.
- Have a straightforward conversation with your partner and your co-worker about every worst-case scenario.
Don’ts:
- Never pursue a coworker for a serious or any sort of romantic relationship.
- Never date your immediate boss or your manager to whom you have to report every day. Or try not to fall for someone who works for you, both scenarios can be extremely awkward.
- Do not try to hide your relationship from others, especially from your manager or colleagues; it will be similar to breaching trust.
Once you have these in check you can have further knowledge of what options you should have while dating someone from your workplace. Romance is something that can happen out of the blue and you will have to understand that it will not be the same as any other relationship you have had in your school or your college.
1. Does this relationship worth the risk?
This can also be a general relationship idea but it must be an essential part of office romance. Before starting the relationship, you should have this introspective observation of whether it is a real deal or just a fling that will pass eventually. The workplace involves a bouquet of emotions from insecurity to frustration, from a sense of achievement to facing failure, and including romantic notions to the overabundance of emotions should the worth the risk.
2. Maintain your Professional Decorum
You should allow yourself to ruin your career for a romance that can just be a fling. Office manners and your attitude towards your colleagues should remain the same with or without the relationship you have. Maintaining professionalism will be appreciated and keeping the entire relationship a secret is a bad idea, in a way or other people will know about this. It will be better if you tell them yourself without making any fuss and unnecessary secrecy.
3. PDFs for Office and PDAs for outside
With all the butterflies and blooming flowers in your mind, you should concentrate on your work without compromising your productivity or creativity. And all your affections and wooing one other should happen outside the office. This will ensure two things. One, your professional life and growth will not be compromised. And two, not everyone in the office needs to know what your special one does to flatter you.
4. Backup Plan
Every relation from its blooming days to its concentrated concrete days will have two sides. One, you will feel happy and everything around including your work will encourage you. One of the very first conversations you should have with your colleague slash partner is how you will deal with it if the relationship doesn’t last or you both decide to break up. Then you should have a proper way of retiring from the relationship without creating a big scene in front of your office. And you should try to react accordingly to that way only.
If the whole situation turns out to be worse than you have imagined then the only you will have left is to resign from this office. Not both members have to shift from this office; anyone leaving the office will be enough to bring sanity to your life.
