Office Romance ramifications

Early in your career when you were single, did you ever find one of  your co-workers attractive. The office bombshell hits on you and you wonder, should I take a chance on a office romance? Things to consider:

In corporate America, office romances are fairly common in the tune of 40% of workers have dated a co-worker. Typically, most of the relationship (72%) are in open or known about. To protect yourself and your  co-worker, you should find out if the company has a policy about office dating. Currently, 25% of companies have a inter-office dating policy.

The obvious down side off an office romance is risk of lost productivity due to flirting and trysts. A bad office romance can be very disruptive and lower morale for the people involved. If the romance ends badly, the result could be loss of key personnel, which ultimately is a management concern.
The worst possible out come for your office romance is a lawsuit based on harassment and coercion complaints. If you are considering and office romance during your career, I would proceed with extreme caution.