Sex in the Office

By Peggy Vaughan

Why don't these risks prevent office affairs?

Part of the explanation for why a woman takes the risk of having an office affair is simply that she ignores or denies the risks. When caught up in the emotional "high" of the relationship, she focuses only on the pleasure and excitement involved, not on the potential consequences.

Having an office affair is not a smart decision for a woman, but most women never actually make that decision; they simply fall into an office affair. Avoiding an affair at work requires deliberately deciding in advance not to get involved and continually reinforcing that decision by focusing on the risks.

The awareness of the need to avoid office affairs is not new. In fact, there's a long list of quite colorful expressions admonishing against affairs at work: "Don't mix business with pleasure," and the symbolically male maxims, "Don't fish off the company pier" and "Don't dip your pen in the company ink." Nevertheless, many men and women who know and believe in this advice still succumb to office affairs.