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Rules for Dating a CoWorker
Love knows no boundary. It cannot be confined within certain geographical limits. Love also causes people to behave and act irrationally and can also have a severe impact on their thought processes. An aura of unpredictability is associated with love. In our professional life, if we get attracted to a certain coworker and intend to start dating them, it will be wiser if we thoroughly consider all the pros and cons associated with such an affair.
So, according to a survey published in 2016, 50% of all workers and 53% of all HR professionals have been involved with having a romantic relationship with their co-workers at some point in their career. It is quite common for a person to fall for a fellow worker with whom they work regularly.
All through office hours, you get to see the person you wanted to fall for. You get acquainted with the nature and style of this person. Sometimes, you also discover that your nature and habits, interests, and likes are quite similar to this person and, thereby, feel a wave of emotion sweeping you towards them.
In such a situation, a decision must be taken regarding whether to allow your emotion to take its course after carefully analyzing the whole situation and the consequences you might suffer in case you allow your emotion to take its course. Let us consider the basic factors which will govern your decision in this regard:
Tips for Dating a Coworker
1. Be Informed About The Company Policy
Suppose the company policy is of paramount importance regarding office romance. But according to your company policy, any office romance is strictly prohibited, and you do not want to cause any harm to your present career and also to the career of your love interest, it will be best to deny your emotion and abandon the plan to communicate your feelings towards your love interest.
If there are no such restrictions in place or nothing is mentioned in black and white, make sure you do not jeopardize your reputation and your future chances of the promotion before falling for a fellow worker. Some company forbids their employees to date their bosses. However, rules and regulations regarding office romance vary from company to company.
It is therefore advisable to know the rules beforehand before making any decision regarding dating your co-worker.
2. Make Your Priorities Clear
Office romance is a little more complicated than the usual type. Before advancing towards it, you have to know and make your priorities clear. You have to make yourself informed about the whereabouts of your intended date. Get to know the person as a friend first before making the other moves.
Check their background, whether they are single or already married etc. An office is such a professional area where people usually behave formally. You have to observe your intended date in an informal setting outside the office.
Evaluate the person and also ensure you know what your expectation from such an intended relationship is. Office romance brings its baggage of emotional as well as practical complexities. So, before taking a final plunge into it, make sure you know what you want from such a relationship.
3. Maintain The Affair In a Low Key Scale if you are Dating a Coworker
An office is a place where colleagues observe you daily. There are bound to be some subtle changes in your habits. Behavioral patterns and vigilant office colleagues are sure to suspect something fishy even from minor, usually unnoticeable traits. Office gossip is dangerous, and it is best to avoid being a victim of such scandalous chatter.
Discretion is not only an option in the case of office romance, but it is also rather a compulsion. So create a clear-cut barrier between your professional and personal life. Both persons involved in a case of office romance should maintain the decorum of not bringing their personal life into the domain of their professional life.
4. To Be Around Your Beau On a 24×7 Basis
When you date an office colleague, the chances of the affair culminating in marriage are very high. Once married, you have to be around your partner round the clock. Your partner will accompany you to your home and in your workplace unless either of you goes for a job change.
So, before embarking on a sojourn of office romance, you must also consider the above factor. Will the omnipresence of your partner be desirable and tolerable enough for you for the rest of your professional life? Ascertain the answer before going for any commitment.
5. Coordinate With Your Colleague Well Enough
From the beginning to the end, office romance is not an easy affair. You have to maintain the secrecy at all costs at the beginning. Intense coordination between the partners is the essence of maintaining such secrecy. Both of you need to carefully plan your entry and exit into and from the office. Give some space between the arrival and departure to and from the office.
If you go for a planned holiday simultaneously, refrain from posting anything relevant on social media. Your office colleagues, HR personnel, and the boss should not suspect anything out of the ordinary until and unless you decide to go public.
6. Prepare To Deal With Professional Interactions
Like all other relationships, office romance also ends up in break-ups in many cases. We do not often visualize such break-ups during the build-up and at the height of the relationship. However, things do not often happen as we intend them to. So it is always preferable to have a long-lasting relationship culminating in happily-ever-after married life.
As we know, life is not always so easy, and affairs do not always end up as planned or visualized. In case of a break-up, your former partner will still be around you during office hours. So the relationship may not be at a comfortable level between the two after the break-up.
Official compulsions may bring both of you on a common platform requiring a lot of interaction between the two. Bring your professional self to use in such cases and try to be at your level best professionally in dealing with such scenarios. You may not be on good terms with the person anymore after your breakup.
However, such things should not reflect in your official conduct. You have to be a bit careful in such cases, but bitterness between you and your partner may take its toll on one or both of you, which may ultimately harm each other’s cause in the office.
The above little things are the safeguards; one has to consider seriously before dating a coworker. It is always better to thoroughly think over the perils of getting involved in such a relationship before committing for a lifetime.