Looking for someone to be your lover? Looking for someone in common who has the same interest and experience as you do? Looking for someone who gets used to your working and living schedule? Looking for someone to date that perfectly matches you? It seems that the answer is your workmate or colleague.
Commonness of Office Romance
Office romance refers to consensual, mutually desired relationship that includes physical attraction between two employees working in the same organization (Watkins, Smith, and Aquino 173). More specifically, compared to other romances, office romance is characterized by desiring to be with other person with emotional and physical attraction at the workplace. …show more content…
As a result, there are a number of single men and women who do not have enough time to meet and know new people during their spare time. High workload day leaves little time for fraternizing outside, and dating online may make many feeling morally defeated. After all, if employees spend more than forty hours a week at the workplace, with individuals who have the similar backgrounds and interest, relationships with colleagues or workmates seems to be the easiest and tempting (Powers 16). With the amount of time people spend on the jobs, and as arduous work leaves employees few time for socializing, naturally, young professionals seek their potential partner in their surroundings-the office, and the office has become a convenient and practical place to meet romantic love. Therefore, office romance makes perfect sense.
Three Types of Office Romance
Each office romance has its unique characteristics. However, broadly speaking, office romance can be categorized to three types based on specific mention as different outcomes and implications for the organization: peer-to-peer workplace romance, supervisor and subordinate workplace romance. According to a survey done by the American Management Association, volunteers surveyed said it is okay to date …show more content…
The CEO of the BestBuy Company was fired because his subordinate spoke openly to the public about the favors the CEO provided for her (Rosemary). See, office romance is a two-sided sword. On the one hand, it makes you feel love, beauty and sweetness surrounded; while on the other hand, it may kill your future unexpectedly. Negative consequences from office romance are numerous, including decreased productivity on the part of the couple, complaints of favoritism on the part of the co-workers during the romance, and possibly even violence such as sexual harassment. Although is has been research showing that office romances may have positive influence on employees, such as increased productivity and motivation (Hemphill 22), some office romance sometimes are problematic and can affect employees’ productivity and morale adversely (Knadler 127). Most employees involved in a new office relationship believe that the new romance may provide them with more energy, creativity and motivation. However, on balance, as time flies by, those become less attractive, and employees start to think about their professional objectives when worry about whether the relationship is going a right way or not. Once the professional objectives win out, they will possibly end the relationship and get into frustration for love