Dating a coworker means sexy lunch dates, secret rendezvous in the janitor’s closet,and work turning into a nightmare when the relationship ends.
Since 25- to 30-per cent of workers say they’ve dated someone in their office there is a good chance you might be in a workplace relationship, or thinking of starting one, so it might be helpful to know how to get through your 9 to 5 after a breakup.Here are some tips to help out:
- Acknowledge the Awkwardness. Address the elephant in the break room. If you run into your ex at work, drop a “well, this is awkward,” smile, and get on with your day. It might help to cut the tension. But if things ended badly, it’s probably best to avoid them completely. If you know their routine, change yours so that you can avoid that anxiety attack.
- Discuss Work Behavior at the Breakup.Get ahead of office animosity by having a talk about how things will work right away. If you’re doing the breaking up, you should also bring up to them what boundaries they’d like put in place at work. It’s easier said than done since breakups are rarely a civil discussion, but anyway you can breakdown how you too will handle future projects, talking about things with your coworkers, and so on, it will help.
- Be Prepared to See Your Ex Moving On.You don’t really get the benefits of “out of sight, out of mind” since your ex is going to be cubicle over from you. You’re just going to have to do your best when you hear their moving on and take solace in knowing they’re hearing about you moving on too.
- Don’t Forget HR.You may work for a company that made you sign something to disclose you relationship so make sure you don’t have to sign anything to say you’re single again. Hopefully, you won’t need to use this information, but you should also check to see your companies harassment policy just in case your ex goes full-on stalker crazy.
If you’re just starting your own Jim and Pam situation, you should go check out the full list oftips for surviving an office breakup here. The first test of your relationship should be to read about how awkward it is to break up with a co-worker andstill think it’s worth it!
Source:Forbes