The Thrilling Scoop on Workplace Romance

Some 8 million Americans every year enter into a least one romance starting from work (and this is a global world that we live in). Where else do you have the time to meet that special someone, given the unbelievable demands life places on us these days? Think how busy you are with the demands on your life. The convenience and opportunities simply can't be beat, not to mention the advantages of not having to stare down a bar at some toothy stranger or loiter around the asparagus bin at your local supermarket.

Some common misconceptions need to be cleared up now:

1. Sexual harassment claims are not the issue with romance (although management and their legal consultants at times seem to forget the difference), as the fear of these claims with workplace relationships is much more than the reality. Keep in mind that corporate and organizational climates can differ on how accepting or not companies are as to office relationships, even depending upon individual supervisors, bosses, and division attitudes. It can depend simply upon whether the company looks at its employees as being more than just a cost factor (regardless of what they say at the sales meetings).
2. Over one-half of these relationships end in a long-term commitments or marriage. The prime reason is that workplace couples usually start off as friends and get to know each other before they become romantically involved. They understand the demands of their career choice and speak the same "lingo"; they usually have similar goals and objectives.
3. The word "office" includes more than the people who work in office buildings: romance occurs between police, farmers, account reps and their outside customers, suppliers, lawyers in court, even acrobats, and occur any place where people come together for any length of time to work. Cupid arrives, whether you're working in a glass-enclosed tower in Los Angeles or New York City, a farm in Kansas, or a computer assembly line in Taiwan.
4. The great majority of these relationships are between coworkers (some 4/5ths), not the stereotyped image of bosses with subordinates. Nor do most of them occur between people who work in adjoining cubicles. And throw away the stereotypical image of the older male boss and younger female subordinate - that was discarded years ago. In fact, it's as likely today that a woman will be managing a man, as vice versa.
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5. These relationships are "joint" partnerships--where many times couples place their relationship over that first job introduction (people will have up to 10 jobs and 4 careers in a lifetimes, and most of us know that), but not their careers.
6. Work provides the introduction, not just where a relationship starts and ends (i.e., people stay friends and become involved later, after one or the other leaves that company to work for another; one partner heads off to work for someone else).
7. Some people feel that office relationships have no place at work; others feel strongly to the contrary. Companies and some of their consultants even want to ban them (although the great majority don't, knowing they couldn't even if they wanted to). Regardless of your viewpoint, one fact of life remains: no matter what people think or how chilling a business's climate is, they happen. And they happen a lot.