{"id":1791,"date":"2012-02-21T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/?p=1791"},"modified":"2012-03-03T09:52:27","modified_gmt":"2012-03-03T14:52:27","slug":"should-you-date-a-co-worker-10-reasons-to-be-cautious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/02\/should-you-date-a-co-worker-10-reasons-to-be-cautious.html","title":{"rendered":"Should You Date a Co-Worker? 10 Reasons to Be Cautious"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the things we know about attraction is that proximity can bring it on. So working day in and day out with a person often leads to feelings of attraction. You talk regularly, share problems, laugh and spend hours in each others company. In fact, surveys tell us that 74% of people have dated a co-worker.<\/p>\n<p>But is dating your co-worker a good idea?<\/p>\n<p>Office romances can be scintillating, but also problematic. While it might be fun to flirt and be given attention, the down side of office romance needs to be considered. Here are 10 cautionary notes:<\/p>\n<p>1) You need to know your company&#8217;s policy on dating co-workers. If there is one that prohibits this, do not do it.<\/p>\n<p>2) When the relationship isn&#8217;t going well, you can&#8217;t avoid the person. The smaller the office, the more awkward this can be.<\/p>\n<p>3) Focusing on a co-worker as a dating partner often alienates you from other co-workers. You stop going to lunch with others, talking during coffee breaks, and getting to know people because your time and energy is with the one you are dating.<\/p>\n<p>4) If your workplace frowns on dating co-workers, this can jeopardize your chance of promotion. Administrators may believe it is difficult to stay &#8220;professional&#8221; when your personal life intersects with the office.<\/p>\n<p>5) A break up puts you in an awkward place. And you don&#8217;t know how people may respond to a break up. He or she could seek revenge or\u00a0 undermine your work.<\/p>\n<p>6) Dating a person to whom you report to is doubly problematic. The inequality of power places you in a vulnerable position and can be manipulated. If you are the boss, you could\u00a0 be sued or accused of giving preferential treatment.<\/p>\n<p>7) If you are quarreling out of the office, it may be difficult not to bring it to the office.<\/p>\n<p>8) Other co-workers could get jealous and set you up.<\/p>\n<p>9) What you share with a person while dating could be shared with the office after a break up.<\/p>\n<p>10) This may seem obvious, but the co-worker may not be single. According to infidelityfacts.com, 36% of men and women admit to having an affair with a co-worker. The workplace is the number one place to meet someone for an affair.<\/p>\n<p><em>What are your thoughts on dating a co-worker?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the things we know about attraction is that proximity can bring it on. So working day in and day out with a person often leads to feelings of attraction. You talk regularly, share problems, laugh and spend hours in each others company. In fact, surveys tell us that 74% of people have dated&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[917],"tags":[1016,1011,220,1012,1017,1014,1015,1010,1013],"class_list":["post-1791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friend-relationships","tag-affairs","tag-co-workers","tag-dating","tag-dating-co-workers","tag-dating-your-boss","tag-friend-relationships-3","tag-office-relationships","tag-office-romance","tag-workplace-relationships"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Should You Date a Co-Worker? 10 Reasons to Be Cautious<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/02\/should-you-date-a-co-worker-10-reasons-to-be-cautious.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should You Date a Co-Worker? 10 Reasons to Be Cautious\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the things we know about attraction is that proximity can bring it on. So working day in and day out with a person often leads to feelings of attraction. You talk regularly, share problems, laugh and spend hours in each others company. In fact, surveys tell us that 74% of people have dated&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/02\/should-you-date-a-co-worker-10-reasons-to-be-cautious.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-21T13:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-03T14:52:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should You Date a Co-Worker? 10 Reasons to Be Cautious","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/02\/should-you-date-a-co-worker-10-reasons-to-be-cautious.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Should You Date a Co-Worker? 10 Reasons to Be Cautious","og_description":"One of the things we know about attraction is that proximity can bring it on. 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Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1791"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1867,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions\/1867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}