How to Handle your Office Romance
Office romances are the mainstay of romantic fiction writers. In real life, many marriages have grown from office romances. However, an office romance takes careful handling because, unlike a romance outside the office, there are implications and ramifications inherent in the situation. An office romance can cause problems at work, but only, if you both allow it to do so.
During the first heady days and weeks of a romance, you feel giddy and want to tell everyone about your new love. Although it can be hard to use your head at such a time, with an office romance, it is better to keep it quiet at the office, at least for the time being. Some companies forbid workplace affairs, as though they could forbid human nature! If you believe that the company could discipline you, keep very quiet about your romance.
Even if the company does not try to regulate relationships between employees, it is probably better not to talk about your affair to your colleagues, in its early stages, or at all, depending on the circumstances. When one of you manages the other at work, the situation can cause difficulties for you both. Other employees could decide that the manager is favouring his, or her, lover, over other employees, even if that is not the case. A disgruntled employee, legitimately disciplined by the manager, could well make everyone else believe that he, or she, was only disciplined because of the romance, or that the manager’s partner could get away with the same offence. Even if there is no shred of truth in the assertion, mud sticks and people wonder aloud.
In any case, your romance will be a matter for gossip and speculation. It is human nature to take a friendly interest in colleagues, but there are always people in any workplace, who treat life like a soap opera, and others, who are downright malicious. It is always wise to separate your private life from your working life and that is even more true, when that private life works in the same office as you. Nasty gossip can sully both your professional reputations.
Couples, sometimes, disagree, or even argue. When that couple work together, it is important that they do not take the argument to work. Try to resolve the issue before work, and always act professionally at work. Taking the problem to work and continuing there is unprofessional, and, anyway, disagreements between couples should always stay between them, they should not try to draw others into the argument. It makes others feel uncomfortable, when couples make it obvious that they have had a quarrel, and that is bad manners, and, in the workplace, sours the workplace atmosphere, which could lead to lowered productivity.
Making others privy to your intimacy makes people feel very uncomfortable. Keep kissing, cuddling, caressing, pet names or verbal intimacy for outside the workplace, the staff canteen is not the place for this behaviour.
It can be very difficult, in the early days of any romance, to think clearly, but if your new love is someone that you work with, there are implications and ramifications to the situation. You should discuss these, and decide together on your future behaviour. Try to consider how situations might affect both you two and your colleagues. Act in a professional manner to one another at work and you will successfully handle your office romance.
