When I was living in USA, a PR-manager of one consulting company from ex-“Big Three” told me about one incident which had happened with her participation during selection of candidates for one very serious vacancy. There was a young man among candidates, who had successfully passed the first stage and met all formal requirements. But it seemed to a commission that he was attentively looking in a décolleté of a woman-interviewer during the interview. It was decided not to take his candidacy into account just in case. Though it should seem that if you open something slightly, you should be ready that someone will definitely pay attention to this fact.
Flirtation and office romances are not forbidden by law, but many companies have sat their own limits and even make their employees sign so-called “love contracts”. Though social and corporate standards of behavior deter development of any relationship at the workplace, they can’t completely prevent personal relationship between colleagues.
Office may be considered as an almost ideal dating agency, if you don’t take into account the real reason you work there. That is why here is the first thing you should ask yourself about, when a romantic desire arises in your soul: “Is this job really so important for me and am I going to change it in case something went wrong?”
Most people depend on circumstances and are subject to public opinion to a greater or lesser degree. Colleagues always display special interest to office romances, but their attitude towards such romances mainly depends on the following factors:
1. Businesslike atmosphere dominating in a company.
2. Motives which form the basis of a relationship of a couple (career, love, etc.).
3. Behavior of a couple in public.
Constant interest from colleagues’ side is not the only factor accompanying office flirting. Office flirtation can prevent you from performance of your official duties. It is especially typical for a relationship “boss-employee”. There will always be people who find reasons to think that a boss covers up an employee or prefers him/her at solution of business matters. As for employees, colleagues may think that he/she is promoted undeservedly thanks to personal relations, and his/her professional competence will always be in question.
Another situation is also common: an employee is dismissed from office under a plausible pretext, if a relationship stands in the way or a break-off happens. A relationship between equal colleagues can develop without hidden career motives. If the best happened, people find their happiness or just satisfy mutual curiosity without claims and moral damage. As a rule, everything starts from quite innocent thoughts and no one plans finding an enemy. But it often happens that you get a very unfriendly person instead of a good colleague after break-off. And then complications start. You or your ex-partner can’t stay calm during business contacts and you can’t concentrate.
Sometimes circumstances are aggravated by the fact that well-wishing observers take your or your ex-partner’s side. In any case you won’t be able to work in the same office anymore, because not only your nerves suffer from it, but business suffers, too.
No matter how successful your relationship is, an emotional tiredness may be accumulated over time, because you spend most part of a day together. Every man must have his “own territory”, and you should think about it before you understand that you have to start looking for it.
Many men and women, with whom I spoke, had no plans to start office romances. But it still happened for some reason, and everyone found his own positive and negative sides in such romances. Meggy, one of my American friends, said an unexpected thing on this subject: “At least, there is one positive moment in flirtation at work: you can save on fuel.”
Other articles:
How to find a husband
How to charm a man?
What do guys hide from us?
Mistakes women make in relationship with men
Body language or how to understand if he likes you
