Office romances are quite common these days. Aside from hooking up with your next door neighbor, having a relationship with someone at the office may be a good thing. The reason for this is that the office is one place where you can meet someone up close. In a working environment, you get to see a person's good and bad side - how he is when he is happy or when he is miserable, how he deals with other people around him: his boss, his colleagues, his subordinates and even with the maintenance staff, how he copes with pressure, how he manages his time and even have an inkling of what his priorities are.

However, having a relationship within the four corners of your work place can be quite tricky. There are a lot of considerations and consequences to take into account of. The risk of having an office affair not only includes having future bad interface and dealings with your officemates but it could lead to you getting fired or worst, getting sued. Here are a few words of advice that could help you with your office romance.

At the get go, it is important that you know what you want from your office relationship. And it is equally imperative that you tell your prospective partner which direction you want the relationship to go - whether you just want a no strings attached quick fling or whether you are into deep commitment relations. It is essential to establish the threshold and bounds of the relationship at the first chance you could so that you and your mate will be on the same wavelength. Different expectations could mean a whole lot of trouble and misery. Be honest as much as you can.

Remember that you are working with this person. If things do not work out the way they should, you are still going to be within the same working space and could be interacting with the person in your work tasks. There is no such thing as avoiding an ex-lover in an office romance, as more sooner than later you will definitely cross each other's paths. Your productivity in this case would be greatly affected and your boss' evaluation results could get influenced. You do not want a trivial fling ruining your chances of getting that anticipated promotion, don't you?

As much as possible, keep your relationship to yourselves. The news of an office romance could be like bees to honey and almost everyone always loves a good buzz of gossip. You do not want to be the topic of the murmurs and chitchats during office breaks. For one thing, publicity may be good but it could backfire on you when it comes to office romances.

Some companies have very strict rules on office relationships. Tattletale on your new couple status could make or break your career. You could very well position the two of you under scrutiny of everyone in your work place. There is a tendency for people to think that your actions are affected with your new relationship, clouding your sense of sensibility and fairness. This could lead to a whole bundle of new complications. So keep it in wraps until you plan to ring in those wedding bells.