Tis the season to be jolly, and maybe even flirty, soon, because according to Reboot Digital, winter is the time when things are most likely to heat up amongst colleagues. In fact, they found that 31 percent of first time kisses between co-workers happen at the office Christmas party, perhaps due to a little liquid courage.
It’s no surprise that the colder the weather gets, the more singles are looking for a way to heat up their love lives.
Reboot Digital carried out a survey of 2,017 people and found that 45 percent admitted to dating a co-worker in the past. What's more, 66 percent of workers said that their office romances began during winter.
Interestingly, many managers were against their employees dating each other, with 26 percent of bosses expressing that they’d rather their staff kept their relationships professional. However, 12 percent of employers shared that they had been romantically involved with their bosses.
In June this year, Jay Starkman, CEO of Engage PEO, told Business New Daily that trying to prohibit relationships in the workplace only “pushes the romance underground”.
"An employer should establish a clear policy that requires reporting of the relationship to HR so that it can be monitored and people can be properly advised on how to conduct themselves," he added.
In the Reboot Digital survey, 38 percent of employees kept their office romances secret due to office policies on relationships. And it gets even messier – 20 percent of office affairs involved someone who was married. Not okay.
The study also touched on employees having to quit their jobs due to irreconcilable issues with ex-partners in the workplace. As many as 9 percent of the participants had to leave their jobs due to these unresolved problems, and 6 percent were sacked due to romantic liaisons, showing that if a relationship is formed at work, it can be a risky business if you end up going your seperate ways.
2