One in five workers admit to having an office crush right now

Twenty-Nine Per Cent of Workers Have Dated a Co-Worker, finds CareerBuilder India survey

Looking for a Valentine this year? The office may be a good place to start. CareerBuilder.co.in’s annual survey on office romance found three in ten (29 per cent) of Indianworkers have dated someone who worked for the same company, and 16 per cent said they have done so more than once. Further, one in five workers admitted to having an office crush right now.

Of those who dated someone from the office, more than a third (36 per cent) ended up marrying their office sweetheart.

While, 20 per cent of workers admitted to having to leave their job because of their romantic relationship with a co-worker.

Sixty-three per cent of workers who have dated a coworker said their office sweetheart was higher up in the organization with 58 per cent saying they dated their boss. Nearly half of workers who have had an office relationship said the relationship helped them progress in their career.

Most office romances start by coworkers simply working together (38 per cent) or when they ran into each other outside of work (7 per cent). The survey said that some other situations that led to romance include work social (18 per cent),  company party (16 per cent), and company business trip (15 per cent).

While most workers were open about their dating situation, nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) said they had to keep their relationship with a co-worker a secret. Seven in ten said they accidentally ran into co-workers while out socially with their office sweetheart. Of these workers, 35 per cent pretended that they weren’t dating their co-worker. 

The national survey was conducted online in January 2014 and included a representative sample of 1,000 full-time, workers across industries and company sizes.