3 Ways to Make a Work Romance Work

work romance, dating, single parent, dating at work

If you know me, you know I stopped going to clubs and bars long ago. Having my son at 20 I immediately felt like I would be viewed as “too young” and I didn’t want to do those things that would put me in the category of “young” AND “irresponsible”, so clubs were out, bars were never really in because hello underage drinking police, and all my short skirts and low shirts were passed along to Goodwill.  Fast forward to 31 and “Netflix and chill” were my only social life … if wine with tv characters can ever be considered “socializing”. It wasn’t planned, but a work romance was likely the only way it was ever going to happen for me.

Dating can be difficult under normal circumstances, but dating at the place you work brings on a whole other set of issues. Nathan and I not only work together, we work in the same area, so if I turn around, BAM, he’s right there. One would think this would make for issues in our relationship and trust me, it did in the beginning, but here are 3 ways we’ve been able to make it work:

Limiting Communication During the Day

I won’t lie, in the beginning, we spent time messaging all throughout the day about things going on at work, what our plans were later, etc … our we’d take walks on our lunch break and gab away about various things, which resulted in us getting out of work and having nothing to talk about it. Now, we limit our communication dramatically, to only talking when necessary, and never about work, so later in the evening when one of us says, “Hey honey, how was your day?”, we really have no idea.

Practicing Discretion

We’ve never been caught holding hands or canoodling at the office, not even at out of work events like the Christmas gathering.  Aside from it not looking very professional, our company does have a no fraternization policy in that you aren’t supposed to date individuals within your department and while we both work in the same space, we fall into separate departments … a loophole that we’ve made sure not to push into a black hole our relationship could fall into and die.

Keeping Our Private Life Private

Never, ever, have we brought any disputes into the office. Hell, we don’t even bring celebrations into the office. We simply don’t bring anything about our relationship to work with us. I can only imagine how uncomfortable it would make a future working situation if we didn’t work out, not even for us, but those around us and I wouldn’t want to put anyone else in that position.

If you’ve got a work romance, what are some things you’ve done to separate the two lives? Please jump in the comments and let me know your thoughts or any advice you’d give to someone in a work romance. Thanks for reading!

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