There are roughly equal number of women and men in the workplace, at least in the developed countries. In the poor and developing countries, still more women are either housewives doing the homemaking roles of raising children, while their husbands work, or alternatively in such countries, the women are in farm jobs and low scale retail jobs. If men and women are working in the same places, then they definitely are interacting more, and that means they are dating more. Which is fair to ask, should you then date a man or a woman that you are working with? In certain atmospheres, it’s tolerated, while in others, it’s discouraged and even against the company policy. People have married even as they have worked together, and at the same time, people have been fired from powerful roles even as they have dated.
Many a man has fallen down and been fired because dating a colleague is perceived as sexual harassment. For instance, an aspiring French President at the time, Dominic Straus Khan had his political ambitions blow up in the air after a sexual harassment claim by a New York hotel worker. A former editor of the Harvard Business Review was fired for an affair with an industry heavyweight, and even Bill Gates was warned by the board against writing love messages to a junior in the office. So, really, maybe you should only date if you are along the same line of work, or the same level of authority. That is if say both of you are entry level, or junior workers, or middle management or senior workers. That means the higher up the ladder you climb, the lesser the dating pool for both men and women.
If dating a colleague then it’s important to report to the HR so you make it official and not incur any disciplinary action from the company. Likely, only a love scene along the same lines of authority will be tolerated. Otherwise, it will be assumed as a power play, for instance, how will a boss treat a team fairly when dating one of the team members? Won’t that team member be favored? How can you supervise the same person whom you are sleeping with? That’s a gross conflict of interest, and it just does not cut across. The great thing about dating your work colleagues is your home and work life merge, which is a great thing for work life balance, especially for GenZs. But then, won’t conflicts at home boil over to the office, and conflicts at office boil over to the workplace? It’s a tricky issue, but it can be managed with some dedication and adjustment.
mabinda.com Business, Education, Technology Commentary. 
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