Dating In The Office

Q: What are your opinions of developing relationships at work? My company is like a damn soap opera. There are several affairs going on, several people dating or otherwise involved with one another... I find it disruptive to daily operations and distracting. Unfortunately, it is not frowned upon by the owners and upper management.

A: With the sexual harrasment laws, your employer should be stepping in immediately to avoid a possible civil suit! Prohibiting workers from socializing with one another is probably illegal, and, would be stopped cold in any workplace with union or civil service representation, or any workplace that pays workers enough to be able to hire a lawyer or at least a long distance call to the

ACLU. However, sexual harrassment, loosely defined as "Unwelcome SEXUAL advances" is illegal, and, also prohibited by most employers. Dating people you work with is risky, and, if you do it, you have to be very careful. But, if I meet someone at work, and, the sparks fly, and, she isn't a psycho, I will probably take the chance. And, I have been burned pretty bad before,once, because I let a female co-worker know how I felt about her. One thing to remember, is, that most people only stay with a firm a few years now, according to statistics before they move on. I think it was an average of five years? ( is that shorter, longer, or about the same duration as a modern "marriage"?)