The office is a place where work happens but also personal relationships flourish and it is quite possible to fall in love with a colleague.
But while the Corona epidemic has affected other aspects of life, the practice of working from home has also changed the office environment.
The surprising thing is that despite the global pandemic, office romance is still lasting. The co-workers are still falling in love with each other, even if they can’t see each other face to face.
This revelation comes from data from the American Society for Human Resource Management (USHRM) in February 2022, which states that office romances have also increased during the coronavirus pandemic.
During the study, 550 Americans were questioned, and in response, a third answered that they had initiated a relationship with a partner during the epidemic.
This is a nearly six percent increase in office romances compared to 2019 figures before the pandemic.
How inevitable is an office romance? This is probably evidenced by the fact that even during a global epidemic, the way of dating was taken out.
Although many companies dislike relationships between employees because they often lead to complicated problems, the office is nevertheless a place where both love and lust are found in abundance.
Experts believe that there are several specific reasons why relationships thrive in the office.
Office Romance: A Story, Too Old
Despite office romances being considered taboo, 75 percent of those surveyed by the USHRM said they didn’t see anything wrong with them. About half answered that they thought about having a relationship with a colleague while at work.
Now, no matter how hard companies push it, office romances are decades, if not centuries, old.
Amy Nicole Baker is a professor at the University of New Haven in the US and has been researching office romance. He says that since the beginning of the industrial age, workplace relations have been debated.
Critics of the time have noted a relationship between men and women in the office that was not given a name at the time. It was in the early 1800s when the Industrial Revolution created a new tribe in society called the ‘white collar’ along with office work.
There are many lovers who meet for the first time in the office and this love does not necessarily end in a scandal. On the contrary, it may be that the end of this love is like the Malayalam stories in which everyone lives happily ever after.
One such example is former US President Obama who met his wife Michelle in a Chicago law office when she was less than thirty years old.
According to 2017 statistics, nearly one in 10 couples in the US met in the office. Now it is not so difficult to do so because statistics show that a large part of people’s life is spent in their office. According to statistics, Americans between the ages of 20 and 50 spend four times more time with work colleagues than with friends.
Vanessa Bones is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University in the US.
He says that attachment to office people is not surprising because work or the office takes up most of our lives.
How would an office romance work in the olden days? This is difficult to predict. But today and especially during the pandemic, the most common method is online dating.
Amy Nicole Baker says office romances continue to be statistically significant and have persisted during the pandemic, partly because dating can now be far from the boss’s eye, where other colleagues There is no risk.
It has also been revealed that many people have even been found working from their romantic partner’s home during the pandemic.
Amy Nicole Baker believes that as long as people are similar in shared work environments, the principles of basic human attraction will prevail, even if that environment is a virtual world.
It is the human psychology behind this attraction that pulls the workers towards each other.
Proximity and familiarity
Amy Gordon is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, USA.
He says that the office provides two primary components of attraction. Working with someone in a place like an office and sharing time can be the basis for romance because closeness and familiarity breed love.
The first point is that the more we see someone, the more likely we are to like them. In the language of psychology, this bias is called the ‘exposure effect’, in which seeing someone repeatedly increases attraction.
Similarly, research on office romances has shown that even working in close proximity to someone can lead to feelings for that person because the more closely we see someone, the more connected we become. Relationships grow just as fast.
This bias also affects the bosses with whom one works most of the time.
According to Baker, this bias is not limited to physical intimacy alone. It is also emotional and mental intimacy.
Whether it’s email, Zoom or some other medium, you’re in touch with each other, he says, and that constant contact and connection creates preferences that go beyond physical intimacy.
Another principle that paves the way for office romance is that people generally like their own kind and what better place than the workplace to meet people who have the same profession and the same passion. Chose the company.
“If two people are lawyers, have the same training, and see the world through the same lens, that similarity can help them understand and like each other,” says Baker.
This chemistry can grow even more if two people are trying to solve the same problem together. Research has shown that social bonds are strengthened during prolonged stressful situations.
Another principle that paves the way for office romance is that people generally like their own kind and what better place than the workplace to meet people who have the same profession and the same passion. Chose the company.
“If two people are lawyers, have the same training, and see the world through the same lens, that similarity can help them understand and like each other,” says Baker.
This chemistry can grow even more if two people are trying to solve the same problem together. Research has shown that social bonds are strengthened during prolonged stressful situations.
Will there be an office romance?
To say that the chances of having an office romance are quite high and now this practice has also become common, but will it continue to happen? The answer to this question is complicated.
The first problem is that it also increases the risk of sexual harassment complaints in the office, while conflict of interest is another matter.
On the other hand, romance between two people can make the rest of the office nervous, which can affect performance.
When two people aren’t just work partners, it becomes “difficult to think about what behavior is acceptable and what isn’t,” says Vanessa Bones.
But the office romance is not going to end. In such a situation, experts believe that some companies may allow their employees to date on the condition that doing so does not affect professional affairs.
Johnny Taylor is the CEO of SHRM. “Rather than pretending that it doesn’t happen or shouldn’t happen, it’s a better way to handle the issue,” he says.
They believe that office romancers should at least disclose their relationship to their managers and human resources. A number of companies have also introduced love contracts, where people are required to inform the company if they are in a relationship with a co-worker.
And if you’re about to embark on an office romance on your own, experts suggest you consider your goals and outcomes first.
Be sure to inform Human Resources, especially if your lover is a boss or a subordinate. It is also possible that you may apply to change your workplace in such a case.
But if you’re in a relationship with a partner, then Baker believes that in that situation it’s up to you whether or not you want to let someone in on the secret.
But Taylor says, “Don’t assume that someone else in your office won’t know, because they’ll take on the puzzle themselves.”
Baker advises that it shouldn’t be too late to reveal this secret. He believes that ‘as long as the matter is kept under wraps, the rest of the office will think that something is being hidden from them and their reaction will be negative.’
‘Others may re-examine their relationship with the two romantic partners and wonder who said what when, and then suddenly wonder why they went on a business trip together. .’
Gordon says the problem could be compounded.
Despite all these concerns, rules and difficulties, office romance or love can happen. According to the principles of psychology, no one can be blamed for falling in love with someone in the office. But it is important that everyone understands the implications of this relationship.
After all, not every office romance ends up like Obama’s love, and how would you feel if your girlfriend ended up breaking up with you and still being around you in the same office?