At her first company Christmas event she met her current partner, Jensen Wong. – This is one of the advantages of returning to the office -says 32-year-old Hughes. Over the next months, they made friends, meeting at work, until they finally began to meet. Hughes claims that they both thought, that they were hiding their feelings, but the collaborator took a photo of Wong standing at the Hughes desk with a smile – a shot reminiscent of the classic scene of Jim and Pam from the series “Office” – and sent her, suggesting that they should make an appointment. They may not be as discreet as they thought, but Hughes says that he prefers to build a relationship in a more natural and stretched way than to meet a drink with strangers from the application.
“The difference was huge,” says Hughes. – We were friends first. We talked. We really met – he adds.
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Return to the office – a new space for love
Along with the return of employees to offices, their search for love returned. Although relationships at work are often considered a taboo, half of the employees had an office affair – results from a study from 2024 conducted by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Another study from 2024, conducted by the Resume Builder, showed that PRawa one -third of employees aged 18–44 began an affair at work after they were obliged to come to the office at least once a week.
Long, sometimes stressful hours spent together, going out for a drink after work and joint “enemies” at work are conducive to building bonds. From romances in books, through series such as “Parks and Recreation” or thriller “SEVENCE”, to Hallmarek's movie from 2025 “Return to the Office” – finding a soul mate a few steps from your own desk is a well -known and liked motive.
Searching for love among office boxes carries a risk, but more and more young singles are ready to take them, frustrated browsing strangers in dating applications. Many representatives of the and millennial generation begin to prefer learning about potential partners in real life. And because people go to bars less and less often, running clubs, fast dates, ceramics classes and a place where many have to come every day – work.
The “Coldplay-Gate” scandal reminded everything that they don't do when they begin to feel butterflies in the stomach towards a collaborator, but there are also people who combine love with work without controversy, and younger employees say that the blur of these boundaries is not as problematic for them as for older generations. Most managers also believe that Office affairs have a positive impact on teams – results from the SHRM study. Infatches make people try more and can improve morale – but they can also lead to dispersion of attention and dramas if feelings are not reciprocated.
Although many employees are loudly demanding remote work in tracksuits until retirement, a quieter group wants to work stationary – to learn from superiors and for a corporate family. “It depends on the stage of the life in which you are in,” says Julia Toothacre, a career consultant. “That's why we see that younger generations are more open to return to the office or want this experience to expand their social circles.”
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Generation with and millennials: less taboo, more emotions
Although the generation does not work for a long time, it actively looks for love – or at least adventure. Most often of all generations it had an intimate relationship with a colleague: 45 percent, compared to 42 percent millennials, 35 percent generations X and 21 percent Boomers – results from the Resume Genius study from 2024 conducted from Pollfish. A generation with most often declared a relationship with a supervisor.
SHRM data also shows that the taboo around romances at work is weakening among younger employees. Almost 60 percent Millenials and 49 percent Generations from believe that office affairs are more accepted, compared to only 25 percent. Boomers.
“This suggests that there are changes in acceptance and approach to romances at work,” says Ragan Decker, commercial research manager at SHRM. – We should not be afraid of affairs at work, as long as we have the right rules and communication to manage them – he adds.
SHRM also asked over 2,000 HR specialists about their policy about romances at work. Only 5 percent respondents declared strict rules discouraging or prohibiting such relationships, while almost 30 percent. It had no rules or was just developing them. Another one -third approaches them individually, and the last third has a policy allowing romances with clearly defined borders.
Some infatuation at work may result more from the so -called Principles of proximity than with real compatibility. Frequently seeing someone can increase our attractiveness towards this person – both platonic and romantic. This is a slow building of relationships – today a colleague is just someone in crumpled chinos at the water distributor, and sometimes you start to see his advantages and personality. Dating applications work completely differently – they are based on the initial attractiveness between people who often have no common points.
The principle of closeness knows Cassie Richardson, a 32-year-old retail employee from Tennessee. Richardson says she had a few infatuations at work, one of which turned into a “situation”. It didn't end well. When she fell in love with a colleague, she realized: “I wouldn't have approached that person if we met outside the company.” Now he says that she would no longer combine work with love, although he understands why people fall in love with people working next to them – in a world where it is difficult to make new friends.
“I really have to try to go out, do something and meet people,” says Richardson. – After eight hours of work a day, for 40 hours a week, it can be exhausting – he adds.
Sparks can appear even at remote work. A study from 2025 carried out by Zeta showed that 62 percent, people sent a flirting message through Slack, Microsoft Teams or E-mail.
When Isabel Amat began her first work as a programmer in 2021, she first met colleagues by Zoom. One of them seemed attractive to her, but only when she started going to the office in the autumn, she realized how much she liked. They went to lunch together after the rest of the band withdrew – and stayed there for five hours. Amat says that the restaurant manager put them a round at the expense of the company, because the staff decided that they were a charming couple. – We said: “We are colleagues” and he snorted. He said, “Not for long,” recalls Amat.
This malicious attention opened the door to the conversation about the chemistry, which everyone saw, and which they were displaced. “I felt great relief,” he says. A few days later they went on a real date, and almost four years later they are still together, although Amat changed her job. – I don't think it happened if we weren't together every day, they didn't talk every day. Maybe I would be captivated, but it would probably work out with time, because we wouldn't see each other – he adds.
Behind every office affair that survives, there are different – ending with awkward, broken heart and problems with the HR department. Half of the employees, however, believe that it is worth the risk. As more and more people perceive the office as a meeting place for singles, you may notice that more and more colleagues are associated with each other. Maybe bad morning access to work will turn out to be the beginning “they lived happily ever after”.
The article is a translation from the American edition of Business Insider.
