While you may assume that trips to sunny beer gardens with colleagues after work could be the perfect breeding ground for blossoming office romances – you’d be wrong.
A study of more than 2,000 professionals and workplace relationships has found that you’re twice as likely to embark on an office fling during the winter months.
And office romances are more common than you’d probably realise; 45% of those questioned said they’d dated a co-worker at some point in their lives.
But it’s a trend that’s not likely to go down well with some employers – more than a quarter of bosses say they would prefer their staff not to date each other.
That’s why 40% of dating colleagues like to keep their relationship status on the down-low for as long as possible.
Two third of office workers say their romance started during the winter months. And that’s partly down to that most clichéd of locations: the office Christmas party.
More than 30% of first kisses between colleagues take place at the event, where the colleague you see day-in day-out throughout the year put on their best party clothes and spruce up their appearance.
PNN