44% of employees have dated someone in their office

Twenty-six percent admit to dating a colleague who is married

With Valentineís Day just around the corner, beware of Cupidís arrow at work. Forty-three percent of workers say they have dated someone in their office at least once during their careers, and one-in-five report they went on to marry their co-worker. Additionally, 12 percent of workers say they would like to date a current colleague, according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder.co.uk, a leading online job site in the UK. The survey, entitled ìOffice Romance 2007,î was conducted by Harris Interactive between November 17 and December 11, 2006 within the UK among more than 420 workers.

Workers are not only dating their peers but three-in-ten workers admit to dating someone who is at a higher level in the company. When asked about dating their bosses, approximately one-in-five females admit to doing it at least once during their careers, compared to only 5 percent of males.

Office romance has taken off across the board. Thirty percent of male workers say they have dated someone in the office who was married, compared to 22 percent of women. Not surprisingly, one-third of workers say they have to keep their office relationships a secret.

ìForty-five percent of workers report an increase in their workloads resulting in spending longer hours with colleagues, which could lead to more office romances,î said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President Human Resources of CareerBuilder.co.uk. ìItís important to remember that even if both sides are willing participants, office relationships could have repercussions. Policies on office romance vary from company to company, and itís the responsibility of individuals to know where their employer stands.î

Colleagues are most likely to connect at the end of the day; 13 percent of workers say their relationships began outside of working hours. The most popular situations where office romances found their spark include:

- At lunch (11 percent)
- Running into each other outside the office (11 percent)
- The company party (7 percent)
- Working late at night together (4 percent)
- On a company business trip (3 percent)

Methodology
This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 421 workers (employed full-time; not self employed) and 224 hiring managers (employed full-time; not self employed; with at least some involvement in hiring decisions), ages 18 and over within the United Kingdom between November 17 and December 11, 2006. Figures for age, sex, education, location (region) and internet usage were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondentsí propensity to be online.

With a pure probability sample of 421 or 224 one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of /- 5 and /- 7 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from subsamples is higher and varies. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.