By Juliet Soh
44% of men are open to dating someone from the office, according a survey conducted by Singapore’s leading online job portal, JobsCentral. Although this means that the majority are against office romances, the percentage is higher than women. Nearly two-thirds (63.9%) of female respondents say they would not date their colleagues.
A total of 2,281 respondents took the survey, which was conducted online from August to September 2011. Respondents consisted of employed individuals from all levels of occupation and income groups. The survey has an error margin of 2.05%, at 95% confidence level.
The survey found out that both genders are most open to dating a colleague who is of the same rank as they are (60.8% of men and 49.4% of women said they are opened to it). Men are most averse to dating their superiors while women are most averse to dating their subordinates (60.5% of men said they will avoid dating a superior while 75.8% of women said they will avoid dating a subordinate).
“Singapore workers are generally wary of potential gossip that may arise from office romances, so many will either shy away from it or keep it under wraps. There seems to be an unwritten rule to draw a clear line between work and romance, particularly between managers and those who report to them,” says Michelle Lim, COO of JobsCentral Group.
“However, if you are dating someone in the office, it is advisable that you also socialise with other people in the company. More importantly, keep work strictly separate from your personal relationships,” she added.
“For managers, if you are seeing a subordinate, it is often not enough to just make sure you remain impartial. You should let your boss know about the situation. In many cases, the company may require one of you to transfer to another team to prevent issues like unhealthy gossips, allegations of favouritism and management difficulties,” Miss Lim says.
Younger workers are open to dating a colleague
The JobsCentral survey finds out that 46.4% of workers aged below 30 indicate that they are open to dating or have dated someone in the office. This is in contrast with older workers, who generally disapprove of office relationships. 64.9% of those aged 41 to 50 said they will avoid dating someone in the office.
Office romance does not affect work relationships with others
Close to 80% of respondents who admitted to have dated someone at work indicated that they were not treated negatively by other colleagues after their office romance was made public. However, of them, those who dated a subordinate faced the most hostility. 23.3% has experienced negativity at work, compared to 19.3% of those who dated someone of a similar rank.
Managers and Directors exercise the most caution regarding office romance
Individuals holding the position of Managers and Directors demonstrated the most objections against dating a colleague. 64.3% of them said they would not date someone from work. On the other hand, Associate Professionals and Technicians are most liberal with office romance. 50.9% indicated that they would start a romantic relationship in the office.
Read more about the findings of this survey here.
Do you think office romance is good or bad for work? Share with us your thoughts in the comment section!
The JobsCentral Group, a CareerBuilder company, is the owner of JobsCentral.com.sg, one of Singapore's largest job and learning portals. Get a free career personality test and more career- and education-related articles at JobsCentral and JobsCentral Community.
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