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Tips To Conceal Your Office Romance

By Cara

Office Romance
Having an affair with a co-worker? Want to express your love every time you see your partner but fear that someone might catch you? Are you afraid that office romance would land your job in trouble?

Well, if your mind is racing with ample of questions, here are some tips on how you can hide your office romance:

Don"t change your daily routine

The best way to conceal an office romance and to cast a protective shell around your new relationship is to maintain your schedule throughout the work day. Nothing should change during your working hours. Do not elope to for having coffee and sit there for hours. Remember, people around you are good at noticing significant behavioural changes.

If you are in love, you are sure to spend more time with him/her. But do it once in a while. Do not go out for lunch regularly. Leaving your group for your new love would spark off a lot of gossips. Needless to say, gossips spread like fire.

Keep the secret to yourself

You may have a few close friends at work but remember, you go to office not to make friends. Everybody you think is your friend is actually your professional rival. So, erase all thoughts of telling the secret to your 'few best friends.'

The moment you tell one or a few close "friends" about your love, they might start thinking that you are no more concentrating on your work. More importantly, do not let love effect your work. Continue to work like before and keep the two things separate. The moment you compromise one thing for the other, you are likely to become the topic of discussion among your colleagues. Disclosing your secret would mean that he/she would be on the look out for an opportunity to point fingers at you.

Keep your professional and personal life away from each other.

Don"t document your love

Never communicate your love through official mail Ids during the workday. You might think you can get away with sending 100 e-mails back and forth every day, but do not use your business address.

Most companies have internal servers that can track any and all e-mails sent between employees, and if anybody over in IT happened to track your mail ID, you are likely to land in trouble. Leaving any evidence is enough to also risk your job. Restrict yourself to cell phone texts.

Don"t let it affect your work

You can send a few lovey-dovey messages via your cell phone but do not stop your work for a chat through sms. You can"t let this relationship affect your work. It is not worth risking your future at the company simply by being with this person.

If anything, work harder to compensate for your transgression, which may give you a slight edge if anybody ever finds out.

While an office romance is a very common occurrence and not quite as taboo as it once was, many hurdles remain. The workplace still presents a lot of grey area when it comes to romantic excursions between employees, so in order to play it safe, it"s often best to keep your little fling under wraps. Pay close attention to the little giveaways that leave you open to suspicion.

Story first published: Thursday, May 20, 2010, 16:03 [IST]