For many people their work environment is where they make most of their casual friendships. It’s the easiest place to find potential romantic and/or casual sexual partners. Everyone on this board probably knows couples who met through work. It’s probably how some of them met their current partners. And, based on some of the previous posts I’ve read, they’ve even entered into swinger relationships with coworkers.
That said, my opinion is that (particularly in the current legal and social environment) sex with a coworker, swinging or otherwise, is a quite risky endeavor. If it is someone who falls under your supervisory chain, and you are found out – even long after the relationship ended — you will be fired. And unless your talents are extraordinary, you will find it challenging to find a new position. The financial risks for an organization are just too high.
Over the course of a lengthy career I had two brief “inappropriate“ relationships. In the first instance, it was a direct report who had already turned in her resignation, effective several weeks in the future. The second was temporarily assigned to the department I managed. (The latter I’m close friends with more than 20 years later, although our sexual liaison was quite brief.) Because these two relationships were two and three decades ago, if we’d been busted in either case, I would certainly have been disciplined, though probably not fired.
One of my former colleagues was not so fortunate. I first knew her when she was a middle manager in an outward-facing position. She was very cute, but sadly possesed of a voice I can only describe as “fingernails on a chalkboard” unpleasant. She also had a reputation for having affairs with colleagues outside our organization. No one was surprised when her marriage broke up. About the time I excepted a much better (professional) offer and left the company, she ascended to senior management.
A couple of years later she was forced out of the company. She had a problem with her computer and the IT department technician who came to fix it found a folder on her computer‘s desktop that contain sexually explicit photographs of my former colleague with her (female — I hadn’t known she was bi) assistant. The IT guy attempted to blackmail her for sex. My former colleague immediately went to the legal department and told them of the attempted extortion. The IT guy was fired on the spot. Then the HR department called my former colleague in and reminded her that she wasn’t supposed to be having sex with subordinates. She was fortunate they allowed her to resign, and as I understand it even sent her away with a cash package.
This woman was done in our industry — everyone soon knew about it — but she landed on her feet, using connections she had made during the course of her employment to land a job at one of the major entertainment industry talent agencies. She is still in that industry and as far as I can tell, thriving. I’m not sure if she learned a lesson or not. But I certainly took it as an object example of how playing around with colleagues can have a major impact on one’s life.