It’s Valentine’s Day, and the daily commute – usually grim enough – was somehow worsened by teenage girls clumsily wielding bunches of roses and gazing adoringly up at their hoodie-wearing lovers, all the while blindly causing havoc among fellow travellers. As Work Clinic’s other half is rather too fond of saying ‘It’s all just one big marketing ploy.’ But there are still some romantics out there, and what could be more natural than falling in love with a colleague?
Reed, the UK’s largest recruiter, has just surveyed 2000 workers, and the results show that 54% of them have a secret crush on a colleague. Read on for some other interesting statistics …..
• One in three confessed to having sent suggestive texts or emails to someone at work
• 38% had had an office romance
• 71% wouldn’t mind if colleagues were having an affair
• Just 8% would confront colleagues over an affair
• 45% felt the office is the best place to meet a partner
• 10% ended up living with someone they’d met at work
• 7% had married a colleague
• 70% felt that they wouldn’t feel any pressure for either themselves or their partner to move to another company
Lewis Woodward, head of network marketing, Reed, says: “It is surprising that people seem so unfazed by office romances taking place around them, even though they are reluctant to open up to their own office flings. On a more serious note, with one in five workers claiming their employers did have policies on office relationships, anyone thinking about getting involved with someone in the office would be wise to check their employee manual to determine what policies actually exist. It is also worth thinking about the consequences if things go wrong.”
From an HR point of view, what to do when love blossoms in the workplace? PES Consulting recommends that you:
• Be non-judgemental
• Confront the issue, rather than the individual personalities, objectively
• Be prepared to act if the issues prove to be operationally disruptive
• Be mindful of the implications when innocent parties (such as partners or children) are involved: they may see your organisation as having condoned the relationship
• Establish clear rules of engagement about conduct in the workplace.
