Office Romances Cooling Off

Office romance is at a 10-year low, with 36% of workers reporting dating a co-worker, down from 41% last year and 40% in 2008, according to CareerBuilder’s Annual Valentine’s Day survey.

 

Thirty-seven percent of men say they have dated a coworker, compared to 35% of women. One in five male workers (20%) say they have dated someone at work two or more times in their career, compared to just 15% of their female colleagues.

 

Twenty-two percent of workers have dated someone who was their boss at the time. Of those who have dated at work, more than one-quarter of women (27%) say they have dated someone who was their boss, compared to just 16% of men.

 

Additionally, 30% of these workers say they have dated someone who was at a higher level in the organization than they were. Thirty-five percent of female coworkers reported dating someone at a higher level in the company than them, compared to 25% of their male coworkers.

 

Forty-one percent of workers had to keep their romance a secret.

 

Nearly one-third (31%) of workers who dated at work ended up getting married; however, it’s not always this way. Nearly one-quarter of workers (24%) had an affair with a colleague where one person involved was married at the time, and 6% of workers have left a job because a romantic relationship with someone at work went sour (9% of women compared to 3% of men).

 

The survey was conducted online by The Harris Poll from November 28 and December 20, 2017, and included a representative sample of 809 full-time workers across industries and company sizes in the U.S. private sector.