More than half of affairs start at the office

With more than a third of our life spent in the workplace, we often spend more time with our colleagues than we do our own partners at home and it is inevitable that relationships can grow increasingly intimate. With such closeness, the workplace has become the number one place for affairs to take place.

Rebootonline.com investigated the number of office romances across regions of the UK and found more than half of respondents who have had an affair say it started at work. A study of 1800 people discovered that one in five individuals have an affair at some point in their lifetime and that 58% of these affairs start in the workplace.

Employees in Durham are the most likely to have a workplace affair (9.6%), followed shamelessly by Exeter (9.3%) and Oxford (9%). This contrasts with those more faithful in London (1.5%), Cambridge (1.8%) and Sunderland (1.9%), where partners proved to be more loyal.

Reboot Online spoke to Barbara Bloomfield, Relate Counsellor, to try and understand the figures: “Results showing fewer affairs being reported in London is interesting. This may be due to the way people define affairs differently across the country. Cities such as London may have a higher tolerance to what an affair is; a kiss or phone conversation may not be defined in the same way as sleeping with someone is.”

Couples Counsellor Ruth Brady spoke about the subject, stating: “People who have work affairs are often looking for excitement. Those involved in a workplace affair often experience boredom and dissatisfaction at work. City workers may experience more excitement and job satisfaction, leading to happier relationships.”