With over one 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 intimacy, 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. A study of 1800 people discovered that one in five individuals have an affair at some point in their lifetime and that 58 per cent of these affairs start in the workplace. We looked at UK hotspots where workers were at greater risk of having a workplace affair.
Workers in Durham are the most likely to have a workplace affair (9.6 per cent), followed shamelessly by Exeter (9.3 per cent) and Oxford (9 per cent). This contrasts with those more faithful in London (1.5 per cent), Cambridge (1.8 per cent) and Sunderland (1.9 per cent), where partners proved to be more loyal.
These results were somewhat surprising, as major cities such as London, Leeds and Birmingham were found to be the most loyal.
Barbara Bloomfield, relate counsellor, says, ‘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, says, ‘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.’
Further reading on faithful workers
