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Do You Regret Dating A Co-Worker?

By Padmapreetham Mahalingam

Is it a fine or a bad idea to date your co-worker? Working can turn out to be monotonous after a few months on the job and people look for ways to bring excitement to their routine life. More and more people like to bring in spice to their work environment through socialising and by dating their co-workers. Usually dating a co-worker happens a lot at the workplace, and it can turn into an everlasting love if you earnestly let it blossom. It is natural to get attracted to someone at work when you run into them day in and day out. Lunch together, furtive glances and smiles, joke-swapping and then afterwork catching up like, movies and dinner, may have brought tons of happiness and joy when doing ‘romantic things' together.

Yes, dating a co-worker can be fun, adventurous and exciting; and it may also seem like a good idea in the beginning. However you would regret it after a course of time if things haven't been planned out well between you two. Why regret dating a co-worker? Personal issues between you two can take a toll on your job performance, and when your relationship fizzles out, it will no longer be fun as it can cause friction on a whole new level. It can become hard to cope with your career and relationship at work at the same time. There are chances of you regretting dating a co-worker later since you didn't carefully consider the pros and cons of office romance.

Do You Regret Dating A Co-Worker?

Here are few reasons why you may regret dating a co-worker and office romance.

Tarnishes your reputation
Dating a co-worker can slay your reputation faster at work than you might have expected. The workplace is surrounded with attractive and likeminded people of your age and dating one of them can make you the butt of office gossip. This kind of talk can sometimes even become vicious. Couples always feel that people will not notice their romance at office, and will not know about it. However they will always come to know easily. And if you get caught in an intimate act during your work hours by your colleagues, they would look for ways to expose it.

Impossible to quiet the gossip
If you have a knack of keeping secrets about your office romance under wraps, then you don't have to worry about it. But, things don't go as planned, as people in all probability are going to catch on it. Every office has gossip mongers spreading news about something or the other. If you don't want the murmurs to become a bit louder, try to open up with your colleagues and your boss on your office romance. However hiding can create a hostile work environment. This is when you would start to regret dating a co-worker.

Confused to take the leap or to leave it
You always spend a great part of your day working together; hence it isn't easy to get out of dating a co-worker. It can be a shaky situation if you are dating a co-worker. For some office romance can turn out to be good, while for many, relationships at work can turn out to be sour or messy. With too many uncertainties surrounding your relationship and the future in your job, it can become all the more tricky for you to take the leap or to leave it.

Forgo new opportunity
Suppose there comes an opportunity for relocation with a hike and promotion, and only one of you is required to take up the position. You are required to make a quick decision and will be left in a tight spot to choose between the new promotion and your relationship.

Work pressure can get under your skin
When things at the workplace get on your nerves, whether it is the boss or any work related matter, the last thing you want is mounting pressure from a relationship. You are certainly not ready to withstand the tension stemming between you and your dating partner. Dating a coworker can turn chaotic, when things get tougher between your office flame after she/he starts to rake up personal issues at the workplace, which can make it difficult for you to come face to face or to avoid each other.

No space after the break up
After the break up, it is natural to not want to see your ex-partner and you would want to see less of them. But if you work in the same or adjoining cubicle, it would make it difficult for you to avoid each other especially when you have no option but work on a project together. Nevertheless it becomes impossible to give each other space at work since one of you could bump into each other either when getting into a elevator or going to the coffee machine.

Hence, dating a co-worker can be dangerous if you don't have the ability to cope with your career and relationship at hand.

Story first published: Monday, November 11, 2013, 18:33 [IST]
Read more about: relationship advice