Office romances become more commonplace

Reprinted courtesy of TheCareerNews.com
PHILADEPHIA, PA — In a study conducted by the Society of Human Resource professionals and the Wall Street Journal’s CareerJournal.com, 40% of employees surveyed said they had had an office romance at some point in their careers — a finding replicated by three other recent surveys conducted by private companies. One of those studies, by career website Vault.com, also reported that 19% of employees admitted to having office “trysts,” with venues ranging from “the boss’s office” to “in my car driving to meet a customer.”
While that last finding might raise some eyebrows — and prompt you to knock next time you open the supply closet — the overarching frequency of office romance should not come as a surprise, says Deborah Keary, director of human resources at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). “The workplace is the new neighborhood. People spend an enormous amount of time in the office, and if romance is going to happen, it will happen there,” she says.

Demographic trends feed the phenomenon, note Keary and others. With the average age of marriage increasing, young employees are more likely to be single. As women continue to join the workforce and rise through the ranks, they are more likely than ever to be working shoulder to shoulder with men. Employees have become more confident about pursuing office romance and less careful to some degree about concealing it. In fact, 76% of employees surveyed in a joint Lawyers.com/Glamour magazine survey, said workplace relationships were more common than they were 10 years earlier.
Article abridged from Knowledge@Wharton, and reprinted from TheCareerNews.com. Get the latest breaking News, Tips and Tools for your job search, Free!