London, February 12, 2007 -- With Valentine's Day just around the corner, beware of Cupid's arrow at work. Forty-three percent of workers say they have dated someone in their office at least once during their careers, and one-in-five report they went on to marry their co-worker. Additionally, 12 percent of workers say they would like to date a current colleague, according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder.co.uk, a leading online job site in the UK. The survey, entitled "Office Romance 2007," was conducted by Harris Interactive® between November 17 and December 11, 2006 within the UK among more than 420 workers.
Workers are not only dating their peers. Three-in-ten workers admit to dating someone who is at a higher level in the company. When asked about dating their bosses, one-in-five female workers admit to doing it at least once during their careers, compared with only 5 percent of males.
Workers are dating across other lines. Thirty percent of male workers say they have dated someone in the office who was married, compared to 22 percent of women. Not surprisingly, one-third of workers say they have to keep their office relationships a secret.
"Forty-five percent of workers report an increase in their workloads, resulting in longer hours with co-workers that could lead to more office romances," said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources from CareerBuilder.co.uk. "It's important to remember that even if both sides are willing participants, office relationships could have repercussions. Policies on office romance vary from company to company, and it's the responsibility of the worker to know where their employer stands."
Co-workers are most likely to connect at the end of the work day; 13 percent of workers say their office romances began at happy hour. Other top situations where office romances found their spark:
- At lunch (11 percent)
- Running into each other outside the office (11 percent)
- The company holiday party (7 percent)
- Working late-night together (4 percent)
- On a company business trip (3 percent)
Methodology
This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 421 workers (employed full-time; not self employed) and 224 hiring managers (employed full-time; not self employed; with at least some involvement in hiring decisions), ages 18 and over within the United Kingdom between November 17 and December 11, 2006. Figures for age, sex, education, location (region) and internet usage were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.
With a pure probability sample of 421 or 224 one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 5 and +/- 7 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from subsamples is higher and varies. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
About CareerBuilder.co.uk
CareerBuilder LLC is the fourth largest visited online job site in the United Kingdom, according to comScore Media Metrix Career Resources subcategory November 2006. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder.co.uk powers the career centers for more than 20 UK partners that reach national, local, industry and niche audiences. Job seekers visit CareerBuilder.co.uk every month to search for opportunities by industry, location, company and job type, sign up for automatic e-mail job alerts, and get advice on job hunting and career management. For more information about CareerBuilder products and services, visit http://www.careerbuilder.co.uk.
CareerBuilder.co.uk Media Contact:
Michael Erwin
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
CareerBuilder.co.uk
773-527-3637
Michael.Erwin@CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder Media Contact
For all media inquiries and interview requests, contact:
Jennifer Grasz
(P) 773-527-1164
(E) jennifer.grasz@careerbuilder.com