What do you do when you're attracted to a co-worker?

[Yavin4]

Me, I don't do anything. I just keep my attraction to myself and monitor my words and behavior around her. I don't think that it's right to put your co-worker, as well as yourself, in an uncomfortable position.

Your thoughts?

[Auggie]

1. I dated mine

Ended in disaster, as you might expect.

[cliffordu]

2. I've fantasized about them during my special 'private time'

but NEVER approached any of them.

They are legion.

[Aristus]

18. ^^^This!^^^

I had a co-worker I was attracted to. I wouldn't dream of trying anything. I just fantasized about her every once in a while. That way, no one got hurt.

[newcriminal]

3. I take him home and sleep with him.

Our children prefer it that way.

[woodsprite]

28. Same here. I take him home and sleep with him.

After he helps cook dinner and do the dishes

[Chan790]

4. I only have one coworker and she's an ex-gf.

It would probably go over fine if it happened...except that we're both seeing other people; her in a monogamous engagement, me in an open relationship where I'm not allowed to _____ people that my SO knows because it gets awkward.

[zbdent]

5. Well, so far ...

we've been married over 23 years ... 26 years since I met her.



and I am extremely happy!

[femmocrat]

6. That has never happened to me.

I need cuter co-workers! LOL

[Arkansas Granny]

7. I dated a coworker once and it didn't have a happy ending.

I found it's generally best to keep your love life and your job separate.

[olddots]

8. I used to seduce them

I never tried positions that would make us uncomfortable .......sorry I'm having another make everything a joke day (as usual )

[noamnety]

9. I marry them. (n/t)

[hobbit709]

10. My rule of thumb has always been: Never play where you get your pay.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. There's that old saying about not dipping your pen in the company's ink.

I got involved with a co-worker once; it didn't end well.

[Generic Brad]

12. Nothing

I really don't have any peers where I work, so anything I do would be considered harassment or downright creepy.

[UTUSN]

13. I never did anything about that, then later found out it was a Career Path for some

Lots of yucky stories

[Bunnahabhain]

14. I refuse to even consider a co-worker as attractive

Do not get your honey where you make your money.

Train yourself on this. The higher up the org chart you go the more you need to internalize this. Repeat this as you move up the ladder. Make it clear you would never, ever make the sexy time with someone related to work.

Why? At some point, the higher up the ladder you climb, you're going to get an allegation lodged against you by someone you either had to discipline or someone that is butthurt because you were promoted over them. Lay the proper groundwork and no one will give the charges credence.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

15. Don't dip your pen in the company ink.

Obviously that kind of sage advice goes wayyyy back.

Seriously, and speaking from personal experience, unless it's 'the thunderbolt' and you're willing to go to hell and back for this person, unless there's no doubt in your mind THIS IS THE ONE, forget it. It won't end well.

[Xyzse]

16. I never date co-workers

I treat all of them the same, even if I happen to be attracted to them.
Attraction is nothing, it doesn't mean I can't befriend them.

[HipChick]

17. Just admire from afar..seen way too many HR complaints

[StanGr]

19. Single - go for it. Married (or an SO) - stay the hell away.

[Evoman]

20. The one time I did something, I ended up engaged.

We are getting married in 2 months

[nolabear]

21. Nothing. Nada. Well, maybe my fantasy life picks up a little.

But I'm deeply married. Not dead, but married. But my mind is my own.

[Denninmi]

22. I shagged her rotten, baby.

Uh, no, the above didn't work for Austin Powers. Won't work for us either.

So not a good idea, no matter how tempting it might be.

[LWolf]

23. Thinking...

I haven't really been attracted to many coworkers.

Once, between marriages, when I was younger and working two jobs, I dated a coworker for awhile. Not really a coworker; I was a waitress, he was a manager. We kept it casual. It wasn't exclusive. We enjoyed spending time together after late night closings. He was unhappy when I broke it off, but was gracious about it.

Once, around that time, I went to dinner with a boss...not mine, from a different building. I liked him. He was a widower of 2 years, I was a recent divorcee. It was awkward. He was looking for a new wife. I knew that I wasn't the right person for him. He needed a solidly upper middle class, traditional wife. I was neither middle class, nor traditional. I thanked him for the meal and declined to repeat it.

That's it. No other attractions at work in 37 years of working.

[AsahinaKimi]

24. I feed him, pet him...scratch behind his ears..

Change his cat box (stinky!) Since I work at home, mine is easy to please.

[fizzgig]

25. absolutely nothing

i get crushes from time to time, but a) i'm married and b) i'm the boss. danger, danger, will robinson.

before both those became fact, i still did nothing. i'm a believer that you don't shit where you eat.

[Callalily]

26. There is absolutely NO co-worker

that I would be attracted to.

But, I've heard it said that "office romances" rarely work out!

[okieinpain]

27. it never ends well. it might crash right off, it might last for a little while

but it never ends well.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

29. Well, if you're the Mayor of San Diego.....

Now I'll grant you that his case is a titch extreme, but it should also be a cautionary tale for everyone else.

[shanti]

30. Never fish off the company dock

It's what I told a friend of mine who had that proclivity. He told me all about the blowback too. It wasn't pretty.

[kwassa]

31. I jump their bones.

well, I would but, no, I'm married, they are way too young for me , I would be arrested, end up on the 11 o'clock news, divorced, alienated from friends and family's affections, ostracized at work, possibly arrested for being weird and creepy...

but I could run from Mayor of New York.

[Yavin4]

32. Or Mayor of San Diego

The weather is nicer there.

[kwassa]

36. True.

San Diego has the best climate in the country.

[TorchTheWitch]

33. Don't shit where you eat

Words to live by.

[Riftaxe]

34. Ask her on a date

if she says no, just leave it at that. Although even if she says yes, she might just be humoring you, try not to be creepy and let the situation resolve itself one way or another.

[davidpdx]

35. In the past I've only once dated someone I worked with

I was in college at the time and working on campus.

[ConcernedCanuk]

37. Never happened, but reminded me of an incident.

.
.
.

In the mid 70's, my new wife and I decided to save money to buy a house before starting a family.

We both had full-time day jobs, and she was OK with me getting an evening job as a waiter at a local bar.

An opening came up for a waitress, and she jumped on it - we were together, making money, and having a party at the same time.

(for some strange reason she got double the tips I did)

Anyhow - she served one side of the room around a corner, and I served the other side.

One night, near the end of our shifts, one of my customers made a remark to the effect

"Boy! - I'd love to take that waitress home and give her a good time!"

I replied, "I intend to do just that!"

Guy looks at me sorta funny - (he was a good looking guy) "How do you figure that?"

I answered, "Well, that's my wife"

Guy nearly fell off his chair,

putting his hands up in front of himself as if he expected me to hit him or something, apologizing profusely . .

I said

"No need to apologize, you did not know she's my wife, and she IS a good looking and very pleasant girl."

"I MIGHT have been offended if you'd said you wouldn't touch her with a ten foot pole."

I got huge tips for the rest of the evening from that table.

Only time my tips exceeded my wife's.

CC

[azurnoir]

38. I took him home

cooked him dinner and a year later we had a kid

actually I was his boss though

[Yavin4]

39. Man, That must've been one hell of a meal that you cooked him. n/t