Careerbuilder and Harris Poll asked 7,000 employees tough questions about their work and dating habits last November and early December.
Thirty-eight percent of workers said they have dated a co-worker at least once over the course of their career; 17 percent reported dating co-workers at least twice. Thirty-one percent said their office romance led them to the altar. Careerbuilder sponsors the annual office romance survey each year. In 2011, they conducted the survey between Nov. 9 - Dec 5, 2011.
Office/workplace relationships have become so popular, the pop culture term "office spouse" took hold of the corporate environment and held on for a good while. The office spouse is a partner or colleague, usually of the opposite sex, that individual employees build one-on-one relationships with. "Office spouses" rely on, talk to, offer suggestions and share intimate details with each other throughout the workday.
Yet, office spouses, no matter how attracted they are to each other, don't break physical barriers. But it's easy to imagine how fragile and susceptible the barrier is to infractions from time to time. Often, "office spouses" remain platonic workplace relationships because the "office spouses" are already married.
Interestingly, the Harris Poll and Careerbuilder do not report on the number of adulterous liaisons inside of corporate and office environments. Statistics and polls have steadily, (for more than three years now) shown that office dating is popular and common. On average, most people have had a workplace romance. As many as 1 in 4 people (on average) have dated someone on the job. The trend continues to show that 1 in 3 of those romances lead to marriage.
Office romances, in general, refer to employees who work in the same environment or company, yet do not hold leveraging positions over the other. In general, the office romance rule of thumb is never date a subordinate. But Careerbuilder's survey found that 28 percent of office romances were workers who said they have dated someone above them in the company hierarchy, and nearly one-in-five (18 percent) admitted to dating their boss.
Women were more likely to date someone higher up in their organization – 35 percent compared to 23 percent of men. Women were also more likely to date someone higher up in their organization – 35 percent compared to 23 percent of men.
But the majority of relationships developed between workers in comparable job levels.
It is possible that the type of work environment induces romantic employee behavior. The survey found Hospitality leads the top five industries for office romances, coming in significantly higher than the national average. 47 percent of people working in the hospitality industry reported dated a co-worker. While 45 percent in the transportation industry reported interoffice romances. Transportation & Utilities – 43 percent; Information Technology – 40 percent; Healthcare – 38 percent.
Most workers who have had office romances said they were open about their dating situation. Thirty-seven percent reported they had to keep the relationship under wraps.
"Whether you're dating someone higher-up or a colleague at the same level, office romances are always tricky," said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. "First and foremost, it is important to know your company's office dating policy. Remember to stay professional and draw a boundary line between your personal life and the workplace."
Those words almost sound too easy. Many workplace romances begin in social settings outside of the office. Running into each other outside of work (13 percent), happy hours (12 percent), lunches (11 percent) and late nights at work (10 percent) were cited among the most popular catalysts for dating co-workers.
Forbes.com, in 2009, published a list of do's and don'ts in workplace romances. The Forbes review also points out that today's 21st century society is a lot less uptight about office romance and the potential office politics that precede those romances than back in the 90s during the Hill/Thomas allegations of Thomas's confirmation hearings.
You can read more of that 2009 Forbes report here.
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