How to make dating a coworker work

10 Tips for Dating Someone in the Workplace

When I polled my friends on Facebook and Twitter for advice on dating a coworker, the overwhelming majority of the responses were simply, "Don't. Dating a coworker or boss or colleague can lead to unbearable awkwardness, a tarnished professional reputation, and even job-loss. Like that's going to stop anybody from doing it. For as long as there have been workplaces, there have been people surreptitiously hooking up at them. One of the great injustices of society is that most of us are expected to show up someplace 5 days a week and perform a task in exchange for money. It sucks, but until we all leave to form a Utopian Society on Mars, that's the way it's going to be. If you guys are at work, you're supposed to be working. It's important to keep your at-work relationship as professional as possible: unless you're at lunch or in a group setting, try to limit the non-work related smalltalk to after hours. You're crazy about each other, but aren't allowed to openly express it when you're at work together: clearly, this is the recipe for some insane sexual tension. But communicating via company email system is dicey, and any email you open on your computer screen can be too easily read by a co-worker.

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We used to go on walks in the woods outside of work to debrief and have some time away from the chaos. It was a bit harder to move on since I was always a little on edge and worried that if I would run into him, if it would be awkward. The managers did nothing despite me breaking down in the middle of my shifts often. So much trauma and not worth it. Some time after that, we realized we had mutual feelings for each other. We had been close friends for so long that it was all pretty seamless.

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Never date people you work with? You can date coworkers. In a worst-case scenario, you might be violating a workplace rule and lose your job over it.

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How to Date a Coworker and Not Get Fired

Spending a third of the day at work eventually leads to strong connections with coworkers. Besides forming friendships that can last a lifetime, many also develop deep feelings and fall for each other. Office romance can brew over time, but there are dos to starting and maintaining a relationship with a colleague.

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