Let's be real, no work is 100% fun. But factors such as people we work with, benefits, or the company culture can make us stay. However, there's also another factor that might make us stay a bit longer than expected--love. Finding love in the workplace is easy. It's like school all over again. You have to come to work and interact with certain people regarding work, and during those conversations, chemistry sparks and there it begins--workplace romance. Jim and Pam, the characters from The Office, started as friends. They're the true epitome of successful workplace romance regardless of having ups and downs in their relationship. With the progress of online dating booming in recent years, 22% of people still manage to meet their spouse in the workspace. The rate remains high as the length of time spent at the office per year is around 1,680 hours, hence it's more likely to spend time with coworkers than with anyone else.
Working with someone will also show their personalities, such as in handling stress, handling problems maturely, interacting with others, or even time management, which makes it easy to find attraction when constant interaction is happening. Just like a common phase of a relationship, two people sharing similarities in conversation that starts off talking about work, then it leads to other things such as food you like, places you want to travel to, favorite memories, or teenage stuff you did long before you meet each other. These conversations lead to building of chemistry, which eventually leads to a more personal level and there it goes, the relationship goes towards a romantic direction.
It's all fun and games, but in certain circumstances things can get difficult when two people in the same team jump into a romantic relationship. It's nice to see a sort of breath of fresh air in the hecticness of the office, seeing two people in good relationship especially amongst the team. However, as much as they try to separate themselves from professional and personal life, one way or another, one interferes with the other one. For example, if the boyfriend makes a mistake, the first reaction from the girlfriend would be to defend him. Or when the couple fights, the other teammates need to choose which person they have to go lunch with, the girlfriend or the boyfriend. Therefore, it's not simple to separate these two circumstances, and it's not an illegal activity where the HR can meddle into.
The worst part would be the break-up. If the couple happens to find their end, it's getting more difficult to not feel the tension in the air. Especially when these two are in the same team, hence it's getting more difficult and awkward to have these two in the same room. Again, it's not a circumstance where the supervisor or HR can interfere, hence there comes the unspoken rule of how to not make them interact with one another. Office romance can be difficult if it ends, thus reconsidering dating someone from the same office and the same team is important. Not only does it affect the work itself and teammates, but also how we behave at work.
