A "friend" was telling me a story that I found to be quite interesting about their personal life. I will refer to them as "friend" so as to not blow their cover (that would make me a bad friend, lol). My friend is an adult, single female, with a career, own house, own car, etc. Independent would be an understatement to describe her if you ask me. One day she revealed to me that she has been involved with several of her single male counterparts on the job. The thing that made this interesting to me is the fact that I realized the age old double standard still remains.
She mentioned that she is always fighting to be extremely discreet and private with her endeavors so much so that they don't speak at work unless they have to. I understand wanting privacy in general but not simply because you are afraid of what someone will think. Furthermore, if the men of the office can be open about their lifestyle, why cant she without feeling uncomfortable? They're all adults and I see no issue with a single woman dating multiple guys if thats what she choses. Due to the patriarchal society that we live in, women live heavily under a microscope but the microscope was set by society and it's well past time that the lens be adjusted.
Some companies have policies that strongly discourage dating because of the dynamics, and dating two people at the same time shouldn't be awful (unless there is a deception), but doing it in the same workplace is a bit naive and asking for trouble. (unless, of course, they are a threesome! lol) Note that my comment is gender neutral.
ReplyDeleteI do need to say, though, that if there is a power differntial in workplace dating, the less powerful one could be thought to be a suck-up or worse. And, colleagues know when something is going on!!!