Advantages And Disadvantages Of Workplace Romance

No matter how much we negate, time spent in the office mostly surpasses the time that we spend with our family and friends. Spending most of our waking hours at work, the chances of creating a sweet corner for someone at workplace become incredibly high. We never know when the cupid targets us with the arrow and we fall head over heels for the person in the next cubicle.

As per a survey conducted by Vault on 2,000 respondents, over 51% of them admitted having been in love with their co-worker at some point in time. With such sizeable population indulging in a workplace romance, it becomes important that you know the advantages and disadvantages of workplace romance before becoming a target to the cupid.

Advantages Of Workplace Romance

• Happily In Love Makes You A Good Worker

Falling in love releases the happy hormones in the body; and when the love of your life is within your sight, the happiness increases multifold. If studies are to be believed, people in romantic relationship are found more productive than their previous performances. It may be just because of the happiness and contentment such bonds bring in. But overall, with enhanced contentment and happiness, employee in romance usually found more enthusiastic and keen in rendering better efforts to improve productivity.

• Motivation To Start Each Day

The thought of meeting your lover at the workplace gets you excited for each and every day. You get motivated to start each day with beautiful vibes of getting ready to meet your love at the office. Your leave record gets improved since you don’t want to miss out on spending more than 8 hours of your day with your partner. In fact, you would even want to stay longer in the office, thus increasing your longevity.

• Positivity Everywhere

The organizations that have flexible policies for office-romance are filled with positive vibes in the air. The positive attitude of the employer, as well as the employees in love, fills the atmosphere with love and positivity. And a positive environment always adds to the creativity and happiness of the person which drags more positivity every day. An office filled with the warm, fuzzy feeling of love even makes the overall ambience more positive and happy.

• Less Distractions

Contrary to the popular belief that office romance causes distractions and decreases the productivity, many relationship experts believe the opposite. They believe that having the lover at the workplace lowers the distraction level to a minimum. The partners tend to focus more on their work as they do not have to think about their partner all the time. They can easily wait for the lunch or tea break to share what they want without spending work time on personal matters.

• Mutual Understanding of Professional Pressures

Not having enough time for each other is one of the biggest concerns of a partner but when you are working with the same employer, you understand how much time and dedication the organization demands from the other person. Couples working in the same office tend to understand each other’s responsibilities and work demands better. Each partner understands what type of pressure is being put on them when they work under the same roof, thus decreasing the scope of fights.

 Disadvantages Of Workplace Romance

• Commingling Of Personal And Professional Life

The biggest disadvantage of workplace romance is that your personal life is no longer personal; it becomes the business of the entire office. Rumor of your romance gets in the air and suddenly your love life becomes the hot gossip of every person. The environment becomes tense with everybody talking and eyeing the two of you. The continuous teasing and judgmental looks may drive quick wedges between you two love birds. In fact, office romance may create differences between you and your teammates. If a teammate is on bad terms with your would-be life partner, chances are the relation you share with him/her may turn sour.

• What If It Ends?

While romancing the person from your office may sound all pleasing as you get to see the person every day, it may turn into a nightmare if the two break up. Break ups are really bad; and when you have to see your ex each day, without any escape, the break up hurts even worse. If the break-up came from your side, you may be at the receiving end of harsh comments from your co-workers. The feeling of not wanting to go to the office to face your ex may creep up and lead to bad performance at the workplace; ultimately affecting your career.

• Think About Promotion

Promotions are the most anticipated things in the work life. Your promotion can be highly affected by your partner’s working behavior. If one of you gets promoted and the other one does not, you may have to exercise certain professional responsibilities at your partner which may become a cause of concern for you. In fact, during promotion season, if one of you gets promoted and the other one doesn’t, it may create a bitter wall between the two of you.

• Work Is No More An Escape

Imagine you have a small fight with your partner. Work is one of the best ways to escape from the fight and forget about the fight. However, when your partner is in the same office as you, your sole escape is also snatched away from you. Personal fights will be carried on to the office which may affect your work. The escape you felt work could be from the personal issues is no longer there. Going out on weekends with your partner, after a long week of work, would no longer be fun if your partner is working in the same office with you.

• Excess Of Everything Is Bad

Spending so much time together can make your relationship boring after some time. Meeting every day with your lover sometimes steals the charm from the bond. The excitement of meeting your love at workplace gradually fades out. And then, unknowingly, feelings of love are replaced with the negative feelings that creep up lacking space in the relationship. You keep an eye on everything your lover is doing at the workplace and even the slightest sight of your lover getting close with another co-worker may spark the fire of doubt in your mind. Apart from this, slowly you may start noticing shortcomings of your beloved which sometimes overpower the qualities you liked when you said “Yes”.

These were some of the advantages and disadvantages of romancing a colleague. While a number of workplace romances lead to happy marriage and matrimonial, others may just jeopardize the person’s career. So, don’t forget to read the advantages and disadvantages of workplace romance before hooking up with your co-worker.

Written by: Palak Gupta is a budding entrepreneur with stakes in Matrimonialsindia.Com, an online matrimonial site trusted over by millions of brides and grooms. She also happens to be a keen writer and touches issues related to the institution of marriage, addressing concerns of those in pursuit of life partners and a happy married life.