Cubicle Romance
Today’s post is actually about my girl Lisa. She is caught in a sticky situation and I’m not really sure what to tell her. She’s totally in love with her colleague, Juan and doesn’t know what to do about it!!
Juan asked her out for drinks a while back and Lisa politely declined his offer since they work together. But he asked her out again! This time to the “Iron Man” film premiere and promised her that he wanted to go as amigos. What chica is going to diss an invite to a cool film premiere?
Lisa took Juan up on the offer and after the movie ended the action was far from over. Lisa and Juan wound up sharing a seriously steamy makeout session! Now they’re talking on the phone every night and going on proper dates. Juan stays over her place all the time and vice versa. He also asked Lisa to be his girlfriend. She couldn’t be happier! It’s actually really cute.
The thing is, a lot of people seem to believe that “office booty is bad booty” and it’s getting serious between these two. Lisa and Juan work for the same company but in different sections of the same department so they don’t work too closely together. They’ve only told one or two colleagues about their “womance” (work romance). Do you think they have to tell their supervisors?
When should they reveal their amor with other coworkers? Maybe in 6 months if they’re still together? Or should they just stay silencioso forever? Have any of you had success or mishaps dating someone in la oficina? Spill the habichuelas, mujeres!
Well chickie. A romance is a romance regardless of whether it’s an office romance, a school romance or just a plain jane romance. In either situation if it doesn’t work out there will always be issues. Some companies have policies against office romances so it would be a good idea for them to check that out first before they start letting people know. If it doesn’t work out than there might be that akwardness when they bump into each other but if she likes the guy that much than she’ll have to take that chance.
While I don’t think they’re technically obligated to tell anyone, one thing they’ll have to consider is that their womance may be painfully obvious to everyone else, so denying or hiding it may be futile. At my old job, there was a couple who worked in the same department, and everyone could tell they were dating but they never acknowledged it. It became annoying to everyone else, because it seemed like they were just trying to hide it. We all were waiting for them to just admit it already. She ultimately moved to another company b/c they felt awkward working together, but their romance is still flourishing.
I have first, well second, -hand experience with this. My bestie met her boyfriend at work. The chatted, got to know each other, and voila! they got together. First things first, they told human resources. What did they have to lose. They were also in different departments but they didn’t want to feel like they were doing something wrong. Fast forward, two years later and my bestie got a new job. The company is so great that she recommended her man apply. Well, he got in and, like the last time, they told HR. HR is very impressed with the professionalism they display at work. All of their direct supervisors were notified, but not anybody else. At work they act like co-workers. Well, the hub of bochinche, you know that man/woman at work, who-knows-if-someone-farted-on-the-second-floor, ran into them while they were dining outside at a restaurant. On Monday, it was the gossip of gossips. Controversy, because nobody knew, blah-blah-blah. Needless to say, it was none of the line level employee’s business. My poor friend and her man, were not only annoyed but embarrassed. The gossip got reprimanded for this and a memo was sent out about gossiping in the work place.
The point of the story is that as long as you are open and honest with your superiors at work, there should be no problem, on their end. It is no wonder that there are workplace romance, since you are spending so much time with this particalura set of people. What you have to worry about are the gossips and such. It is nobody’s business what you do on your off time, but if you are doing the humpty in the copy room, I would think twice!
p.s. I just got back from my friend’s wedding! It is possible to find love at work.
Hi Chicas!!!
Thank you for all your wonderful responses! I think as Latinas, we always keep it real and we wear our hearts on our sleeves, ya know? It’s hard not to be open about things…I think Lisa should talk to her supervisors about her relationship before they find out from other people. Perhaps they should continue acting professional and if anyone asks, they can confirm that yes, they’re dating. It’s so important to be honest and not hide anything under the rug. At the same time, they shouldn’t canoodle in the office or hump on the copy machine (you’re mad funny Evelyn)!!!! LOL.