Workplace romances divide employees into two camps. Some believe that the office can be the place where you find your right partner, others warn that such connections can bring conflicts, gossip and professional problems. A discussion thread on Reddit, where Romanians recounted their experiences, shows that there are both stories with happy endings and situations that seriously affected the atmosphere at work.
One user reported the case of a couple who met at work and divorced after three years. “Very nasty thing. They started denigrating each other at work, talking bad about each other. Finally she left the country”he wrote. The story shows how much a breakup can affect the professional environment, reports Click!.
However, there are also positive examples. Another netizen said that he met his partner at a former workplace. “I met my current girlfriend at work, at a former job. As long as you can be pro, all good. We are already 3 years old”.
Others say things can go well if a few rules are followed. “As long as 1. all people are single and 2. there isn’t a power differential being abused… I say I’m 100% ok”someone commented in the thread.
Damaged career and suspicions of favoritism
Not all experiences were happy, however. A woman confessed that her relationship with a colleague influenced her decision to leave her first job. “I regret even after 10 years that I left my first job, because through that person’s lens I saw things worse than they really were, and instead of continuing to grow there, I left for the worse.”
Some panelists also drew attention to suspicious promotions. “They get promoted quickly without proving much. They sleep with their male and female colleagues, and a year later you wake up with them that they are elevated to who knows what positions at the leadership level, without having who knows what assets”one user claimed.
Situations where relations between superiors and subordinates complicated things were also mentioned. “A director has a child with the chief accountant and is basically one «batch»you have a problem with one of them, you automatically have the other too, something I say rather unprofessionally, but inevitably“, someone reported.
The conclusion of the discussion is that relationships at work can bring both fulfillment and serious tensions. As one user remarked, “They started belittling each other at work”, and such situations can affect not only the couple, but the whole team.
