Office romances are fun and exciting when things are going good. But when they go south it is a guaranteed disaster.
Romances?
Snort.
Likely love has little to do with it.
Idiots!
You don’t sh!t where you eat..
Dang fools!
My office romance lasted 40 years, once we married, we still worked in the same office. No problems, but we decided to relocate to a better part of the state and they lost 2 of their better performers. It was a normal thing, it was a large company where women out numbered men, and there were too many romances to list. No one was ever threatened due to a romance. What went on outside the office remained outside of the office.
A hard lesson learned: “Don’t dip your pen in the company inkwell.”
Don’t believe the stats.....not one little bit.
My wife and I worked together. We dated for two years and then got married. I got promoted and transferred just before we married. Marriage lasted 30 years. We’re probably the exception.
I worked in a company that had 5 marriages between employees. I then moved to another one where the only office relationship spawned a 20 year marriage with two children which is still going strong. I think these stats need a denominator. What are the percentages of romances not between office-mates. And what happens to employees who do not have romances. They also get fired and transferred.
Now Sheryl Sandberg,widow of Facebook co-founder David Sandberg, whines that male execs don’t want to be alone with women to “mentor” them. DUH.
This happened in my office. They had an ugly breakup but still had to work together. It made staff meetings highly unpleasant. Eventually she quit.
A somewhat related story: My ship, CV-63 USS Kitty Hawk, made a port call to Perth/Freemantle in Western Australia. Six marriages among the officers of my squadron (27 officers total) resulted from that one week visit.
Met my wife in 1958 when we were both employed at Kresges Dept. Store in Newark, N.J.. We married in April of 1962 and are still married. 56 Very good years.
Knew a fairly normal guy who fell in love and began living with one of these chicks that was goth before goth was cool.Everyday was Halloween for this chick. I got transfered into IT along with this guy and a month later, he stops showing up for work. Cold turkey. No explanation.
Afull two months later he calls our boss and says that he had a falling out with Ms. Spooky and she threatened to have him killed. And her look said she meant it.
So he had driven home to his parents in Nebraska and then enlisted in the Coast Guard just to get out of her access zone.
That’s a very dramatic example but, yeah, office romances that turn bad also result in job changes.
I met my wife at work. But that was over 30 years ago, and was a different era.
I met my hubby at work. Lots of our friends also met and married at the same company. We’ve all be married over 20 years.
The ones that didn’t last as long were from spouses dying.
I miss working there. The company got bought out.
Fools in love
Well, are there any other kind of lovers?
Fools in love
Is there any other kind of pain?
Everything you do, everywhere you go now
Everything you touch, everything you feel
Everything you see, everything you know now
Everything you do, you do it for your lady love
Your lady love, your lady love, your lady love
Fools in love
Are there any creatures more pathetic?
Fools in love
Never knowing when they’ve lost the game
Everything you do, everywhere you go now
Everything you touch, everything you feel
Everything you see, everything you know now
Everything you do, you do it for your lady love
Your lady love, your lady love, your lady love
Fools in love they think they’re heroes
Cause they get to feel more pain
I say fools in love are zeros
I should know
I should know because this fool’s in love again
Fools in love
Gently hold each other hands forever
Fools in love
Gently tear each other limb from limb
Everything you do, everywhere you go now
Everything you touch, everything you feel
Everything you do, even your rock ‘n’ roll now
Nothing mean a thing except you and your lady love
Your lady love, your lady love, your lady love
Fools in love they think they’re heroes
Cause they get to feel more pain
I say fools in love are zeros
I should know
I should know because this fool’s in love again
Fools in love they think they’re heroes
Cause they get to feel more pain
I say fools in love are zeros
I should know
I should know because this fool’s in love again
I work in a hospital where nurses and doctors “practice” their trades.
A surgeon I know says, “Most problems in neurosurgery can be avoided by sleeping with your own wife.”
Lot’s of transfers happen quietly.
Don’t dip the pen in company ink.
First I need to nitpick. What the authors mean by “unemployment” and what we usually think of as unemployment should be clarified.
For myself, I do not think of merely being fired, or leaving a job voluntarily as “unemployment”. I only think of it as unemployed when a change of jobs has a break and no other job is obtained before the person has to, for financial reasons, start taking their state’s unemployment benefits.
It may be nitpicking to some, but my own personal observations of incidences of “office romances”, that resulted in one person leaving the company, always observed the person who left readily got another job if they did not already have one lined up. So, I am leery of accepting the “unemployment” angle. I think they should have kept it the simple act of one of the two persons “had to leave the company”, without the “unemployment” connotation.
On the general issue of office romances, I think they seldom are a healthy thing for the persons directly involved or the work environment for themselves and the others they work with. I think it is best for all concerned, including the romantic couple, if one of the two persons leaves the company. Why? The relationship risks putting ethical questions on office performance judgements as viewed by the pair and by their co-workers - was an office performance, promotion or demotion judgement call affected by the relationship or superiors knowledge of the relationship? The risk and it’s question is there, whether or not there is anything to it. It’s bad for the overall work environment, unless you’re running a Peyton Place department or company to start with.
I consulted in a company that had many marriages within quite a number of the top managers. Those who were close to either side of those marriages, outside the office, felt secure. Those that didn’t felt like insecure outsiders and that their work and promotions were hindered by not being in with the “in” crowd - many senior management couples that also were very much friends with each other.
There is nothing wrong with two single people who work together dating. When one or both are married that’s when the problems start.