Office Romance
By: Lee LiangDa
First, for your own sake, you want the relationship to ultimately lead you both walking down the aisle and becoming a married couple.□ Second, for everybody’s sake, you hope this relationship doesn’t do harm to any of your colleagues.□ Ideally you wish to get blessings from everyone.□ At the minimum, you want to make sure no one is against this relationship. □ To achieve this perfect ending, you have to stay away from these three Don’ts below:
Don’t lose your moral values.□ It’s not worth it to lose your moral values over a romantic relationship. Dating in the office is okay as long as you are not doing anything morally wrong.□ The other party must be single.□ Getting involved with a married person is nothing but trouble.□ Things can get even uglier when kids get factored into the equation.□ Society has trouble accepting this especially in the office where affairs may be tolerated.□ Keep your moral values and do what is right, no ifs, ands or buts.□ Don’t compete for the same person.□ For the most part you can set your own rules and pursue who you want in the game of love, even if you are competing against others for the same prize.□ It’s a fair game and winner takes all, right?□ In the office this game becomes a little more sensitive.□ Competition between employees can change the entire mood of the office for the worse.□ Suppose you won in the end, that would mean that your coworker lost and you certainly wouldn’t get a blessing from him/her.□ Dating someone from the office is alright, just refrain from competing with your coworkers for the same love.
If that very special person already has someone in mind, then don’t make any move.□ You should be patient and wait.□ You can show your affection only if their relationship is completely over.□ If many people are pursuing the same person, stay on the sidelines and don’t join in, especially if your coworkers are involved.□ There is just too much potential for hurt feelings.
Don’t be worried about missing a great opportunity.□ There is something intriguing about relationships.□ Usually what’s meant to be yours will be yours.□ What’s not yours wouldn’t be yours even if you forced the issue.□ Take things nice and easy instead of hastily making a wrong turn.□ This is a major decision that will change your life.□ Be patient and take it one step at a time.□ This will give you some time to prepare yourself and also get to know the person better.□ At the same time you will learn how to be sensitive to other people’s feelings and respect their choices.□
Don’t be together for a personal gain.□ Romance in the office is often the subject of gossips.□ Rumors can spread that sometimes can give you a lot of pressure, even if you really truly loved the person.□□ When you are doing it for personal gain, your chances of surviving the rumor mill are very slim.
A good example would be the other party is a relative of your boss, maybe your VP’s daughter.□ Not that she’s off limits, but you want to make sure you love her for who she is, not what she has. Nothing to Hide
Keep it low when you are dating someone in the office.□ The best way would be to keep it a secret until you are ready to walk down the aisle.□ This way, no one will feel awkward in the office if things don’t work out.□ Keeping the relationship a secret does not mean you can do shameful acts.□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□
There are two parts to this.□ First and foremost, keep your relationship straight and simple, or you’ll find out how the office gossip can send you straight to the door.□ Second, you don’t want to conspire with each other to find out other coworkers’ secrets, and then use the information against them.□ If you can pay attention to those three Don’ts and have nothing to hide, then your romance from the office has a great shot at a terrific ending.
~Mr. Lee Liang-Da is currently a professional business management trainer. He is a certified worker counselor and national human resource agent. He is also the director of www.seewant.org