We’ve all heard that getting romantically involved with someone you work with is a bad idea, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping most people. New research reveals that three in four people have had a romantic relationship with a coworker.
A poll of 11-hundred employees looks into the pros and cons of relationships at work and finds:
- Nearly all respondents (94%) have become close friends with someone at work, but that drops to 80% for those working in large companies with more than 500 employees.
- People feel the positives of having friends at work include increased job satisfaction (83%), improved workplace communication (83%) and higher sense of trust in the workplace (81%).
- But on the flip side, workers say the downsides to being close to people include difficulty maintaining a work-life balance (79%), less constructive feedback between colleagues (77%) and distractions affecting productivity (74%).
- Workplace gossip (32%), competition (26%) and a lack of trust (24%) are the top reasons why respondents would end a workplace friendship.
- Back to the romantics side of things, 70% admit they’ve flirted with a colleague and 59% have had sex with one.
- Nearly three-quarters (73%) know someone who’s met thier spouse in the workplace, while 67% know someone who’s cheated on their spouse with someone at work.
- More than three in four respondents (76%) say there’s nothing wrong with dating a colleague and 71% say the same about dating a manager.
- But most of those surveyed see the downsides to workplace romances, including that it leads to favoritism (75%), lost productivity (74%) and that it’s unprofessional (73%).
Source: CNBC