I surveyed people about their experience dating a coworker and got a good number of responds. In total 57 people took the survey and about half of them (54%) said they never dated a coworker while 46% said that they had. The 12 questions that were on the survey were a mix of multiple choice questions and open ended ones. The participants seemed to have enjoyed the open ended portion of the survey the best as it let them share their personal stories of romance in the workplace. Most them shared stories about how the relationship in the workplace led to awkward moments or simply good friendships. Some lasted and some ended but in the end the participants of the survey who did date seemed to have faced similar challenges. The wordle below shows some of the key words used in the responses which I think illustrate key components in dating coworkers, the main words being “time” whether it be not having enough of it to date the coworker or not having the same schedules  where their times coincided.

Most of the people who did date in the office dated a co-worker that was in the same department while others dated those in a different department. However, most of the participants said the person they were dating were neither a coworker or in a different department. Based on many of them responding with “Other” it was hard to track the what kind of relationship they had with the person in the work place.

In the end, the survey gave a good insight of the kinds of relationships that come out of dating co-workers. For some, about 18% it lead to serious committed relationships and for a few, 7%, it ended up in marriage. And for 16%, the relationship didn’t last and they broke up. This subject for the survey explored the fine line that most people had to walk between when deciding to date a coworker. Some chose not to take the risk at all and thought it was inappropriate, avoiding it all together.