Workplace romances are both frequent and secret in Canada
Posted June 30, 2019 4:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Nearly half of Canadians in a romantic relationship with a colleague keep it a secret from their bosses and coworkers.
This is one of the discoveries from a new survey on workplace romance conducted by ADP Canada, a Toronto-based HR consulting firm.
Forty-five per cent of people surveyed said they kept their relationship a secret from someone at work while 27 per cent kept it a secret from everyone.
Dr. Natasha Sharma, a psychologist and relationship expert, says she’s not surprised.
“I do think a lot of people think that it will undermine their reputation or upper management’s confidence in them. It isn’t very logical but it is still a strong sentiment,” she explains.
However, the survey found that 83 per cent of Canadians are open to workplace romance relationships for themselves and indifferent to whether or not their coworkers have them.
One third of Canadians say they are or have been in such a relationship.
Dr. Sharma says there’s a simple explanation for this.
“The vast majority of our waking hours are spent in a workplace,” she says. “We all have a very deep need or desire, drive to form meaningful connections and in order to form those we need to see people frequently and we need to see them for long durations of time.”
