Is dating a co-worker a good idea?

Tomi Dean Lynch
3 min readDec 27, 2023

We’ve all heard the old saying, “Never mix business with pleasure,” and in many cases, employers frown upon fraternization between employees. But despite the warnings and the potential harsh reaction by the boss, a recent Forbes survey shows that over 60% of adults have had at least one office romance.

Why does this happen?

As adults many of us spend more time at work than we do in our homes and spend even less time on leisure activities outside our homes. 61% of survey respondents cited this as the reason they date people that they work with.

The greatest number of respondents, 65%, said that they were comfortable with the people they worked with and that was why they dated them. There’s a certain comfort that comes from sharing and understanding each other’s work experiences and people tend to discuss their personal lives more freely when they are in a familiar environment with their peers.

It affects both your home life and career

Dating a co-worker may make it more difficult to plan vacations. The boss may not have the bandwidth to approve two vacation requests for the same period.

52% of respondents indicated that their co-workers treated them differently. Many respondents said that they didn’t like seeing public displays of affection between their…

--

--

Tomi Dean Lynch

Writer of Romance/Erotica, Extreme coffee drinker, transplanted Jersey girl, adopted mother of parrots.