Have You Dated Your Co-Worker?

Have You Dated Your Co-Worker?

The workplace has provided many professionals with good friends, and for some, romance.

Over Valentine’s Day weekend, Blind, the anonymous professional network with 4.3 million users, asked:

  1. Have you ever had a romantic relationship with a co-worker?
  2. Have you ever had a romantic relationship with a supervisor or someone who reports to you?
  3. If you have had a romantic relationship with a co-worker, do you regret it?

We compared the Bay Area responses to the rest of the country. However, tech culture has very little influence on whether you’d date a co-worker or not. 

Key learnings from 2/12-2/16 from 5,600 professionals 

  • Nearly ~30% of professionals in the Bay Area and the rest of the country have had a romantic relationship with a co-worker 
    • 1 out of every 4 professionals at Google in the Bay Area has had a romantic relationship with a co-worker 
    • 3 out of every 10 professionals at Facebook in the Bay Area has had a romantic relationship with a co-worker 
    • 3 out of every 10 professionals at Amazon has had a romantic relationship with a co-worker 
    • 56% of Microsoft professionals have had a romantic relationship with a co-worker 
    • 27% of Netflix professionals have had a romantic relationship with a co-worker 
    • 23% of professionals in the Bay Area who have had a romantic relationship with a co-worker have regretted it
    • 20% of professionals in the rest of the country who have had a romantic relationship with a co-worker have regretted it
  • Nearly 5-6% of professionals in the Bay Area and the rest of the country have had a romantic relationship with a supervisor or someone who reports to them 
    • 29% of professionals in the Bay Area who have had a romantic relationship with a supervisor or someone who reports to them have regretted it
    • 33% of professionals in the rest of the country who have had a romantic relationship with a supervisor or someone who reports to them have regretted it

See the data highlighted here.

A user at Amazon posted, “How is your experience with dating in the Bay area? How does it differ for women vs. men? As an objectively attractive woman in my mid-20s, I expected the dating scene to be great when I moved to SF a year ago due to the supposedly higher ratio of men/ women. My dating experience here has actually been the least successful amongst my experience in all other metropolitan cities (NYC, Boston, London…). I’m confused” 

To this, a Microsoft employee responded “Everyone [in SF] is transient and works too much chasing the next hot startup. And bring that attitude to dating.”

A Facebook employee joked that “leetcode will always love me back” 

A different Amazon professional posted, “You spend more than 1/3 of your life at work. How else are you going to meet someone? No one has time for anything else.”

A Microsoft user posted, “Who hasn’t [dated a co-worker]? People tend to meet people who are close to them. Happens in school, church, work, neighborhood. I totally avoid it now that I’m a full time worker plus this field is not very well blended gender wise.” 

Love can be complicated. But mixing love and work is even more so because it involves your co-workers, boss, and career. However, professionals in Silicon Valley have similar dating habits to the rest of the country when it comes to dating co-workers, supervisors, or someone who reports to them.