Don’t mix business and pleasure!
Also don’t talk about religion or politics.
Following the above advice will keep you out of trouble at work!
It’s just a really bad idea.
One of my coworkers started working in my department shortly after I was hired. Within a month, she was dating someone else in our department. And because she was a TMI person, I learned information about this guy that was, well, TMI. Now whenever I think about or see him, I think about what she told me. So if you’re going to date a coworker, never let anyone in the office know about it.
Their relationship didn’t last long (and neither did she) so the real awkwardness didn’t have a chance to develop. But I sometimes wonder about all the “what ifs”.
Some years back, I worked with a couple who met at work, married, had a baby, then had a really nasty divorce. He ended up transferring to a different division of the same organization - I don’t know if it was his choice or a management decision. There was never any fear of bloodshed in the office when things started going sour, but it did make for some strained situations.
A few weeks ago, my boss married my coworker. They’re still boss/subordinate, and it’s all still new enough that it hasn’t gotten awkward yet. Except for me in that I didn’t know they were getting married till after their honeymoon. Honest to goodness, I heard no talk about it at all.
My husband works for this company also, but he’s in a different group, physically located several miles from here. (And we’d been married over 30 years and he’d been here over a year before I was hired.) Apparently, it was a big topic of conversation over there, but he never mentioned it to me, which I thought was odd. And according to him, many of the higher-ups aren’t too happy about it, but there’s not a lot they can do - the workload is really heavy right now. No one wants to transfer here to work for the guy (he is a bit of an ass) so they can’t just swap bodies. I think if I needed this job, I’d be looking for another right now. But since I’m doing this for giggles and can quit any time, I just don’t much care. If any drama starts, I’ll take my crayons and re-retire. 
No one said that was their standard for attempting a relationship, though. The problem is not ‘this relationship might not work out’, but ‘what are the risks if it doesn’t?’ If you date a coworker, after the breakup you’re still going to have to work with them for your long workday, which can be unpleasant in and of itself. Any private stuff that you don’t normally spread around the workplace might come out too. And if the breakup is unpleasant, then that is going to spill out into the work environment, and can put your job or advancement potential at risk. If the person turns out to be crazy and starts harassing or stalking you then your options are really limited, and the risk to your job/career is immense.
These are either non-risks, much smaller risks, or more manageable risks if you’re dating someone from outside of work.
I dated a girl in my Sunday school class back in high school. It was great while were were dating a liked each other, but unbearable when it ended. That memory stuck with me so I wasn’t really tempted to try dating at work.
And for the love of all things holy, if a married couple are both working at the same company as you, DO NOT have an affair with one of them. Just working in the same company is uncomfortable as all hell when things come apart.
I’d say that it’s a total no-no among people who work together within a certain distance, be that physical or organizational.
But I don’t see a big problem if you’re in totally different departments and supervised by entirely different people, unless you happen to sit next to each other. There comes a point in companies above a certain size when you’re no more connected or likely to run into each other if you break up than if you dated a friend of a friend or via some other social connection.
I think it’s a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad idea. At least for me.
It’s a terrible idea to date a co-worker in the sense of someone you work with, if it’s someone you met at the office Christmas party and never see the rest of the year it’s still not a great idea but it’s probably manageable.
My wife and I worked together at my start up since I was always there it was the only way for us to see each other and spend time together. Generally it was great and I would do it again but it was a pain when we would argue since it carried over to work wether or not we were fighting about work. Now we’re looking at getting jobs at the same fortune 500 company but her office is going to be 15 miles away and working in a different department so we’ll never work together or even have a boss in common below the CEO. No one at the new company has a problem with it and HR is even helping get me in with the company since she already works there.
As long as neither party has supervisory authority over the other, it’s fine The most a company should be able to say is “Your relationship is interfereing with your job performance so one of you is switching teams,” but that should be no greater than the power the company has to deal with any other sort of personality/work conflict.
Our jobs are not our lives. OUr jobs are what we do so that we can PAY for our lives.
Dating someone at work is great. Breaking up with them is hell. Yes, it does work sometimes but the odds are against it–think about how many breakups you have had (i.e., all relationships except your current one). It is awkward at best.
I have had two relationships with women at the office. One ended badly although we were no longer working in the same location when that happened. Thank goodness for that because not only would it have been intolerable for us to be in the same building but we would also each be ostracized by our respective friends in the office. That would have been a very bad situation.
One ended more amicably but still emotionally and again we were not working in the same location when we broke up. It still would have been enormously awkward, especially if either of us were exposed to office gossip about who the other one was dating, etc.
I wouldn’t say absolutely never do this but I wouldn’t view the office as a dating pool.
Never do it ever.
What is really awkward is the company Christmas party after one of you gets fired.
My husband and I met at work. We’ve been married ten years now and have always worked in the same department, same small building. However, our jobs connect only slightly and we generally ignore each other during working hours, even driving to work separately. New employees usually assume our shared last name is a coincidence.
We always have a lot to say to each other when we get home! 
Aren’t they always? 
I was working at an Auto Parts warehouse, passing time after graduating High School.
I’d been there several months when a new girl got a job in the APW’s office. After a couple of months of noticing each other every once in a while, we went on a date, clicked within the first half hour. Ten months later we were married. That was three weeks and 46 years ago, and we’re still here.
What is your opinion of dating at work?
I think you should concentrate on your work during the workday. Plenty of time to date after work in the evening.
Extremely unprofessional and a really bad idea for so many reasons, most of which have already been listed.
I have one more to add: financial instability. If you date a coworker and it works out and you end up financially inter-twined, and the company hits a rough patch, you can both easily end up out of work at the same time. If you worked in different companies, the odds of this happening drop dramatically, particularly if you work in completely different industries.
We worked in different departments. We’ve been married for 35 years. Ain’t no law.
Yeah it’s a bad idea, can be really awkward, shouldn’t be done casually, etc, etc…, BUT, if someone truly felt they had a chance to pair up with a life partner, I’d hope they’d be enough of a man / woman not to let that stop them. What’s the point of being alive anyway?
Eh. My parents met at work and began dating in 1973. In March my mom died exactly 2 months before their 41st anniversary.
Our center director married a coworker, whom he supervised, so I’m guessing it’s a-ok where we work.