The Office Affair

Abstract

In the last few years, there has been increased interest in “office affairs.” Although traditionally workplace sexual relationships were the subject of gossip, but little serious attention, they are currently considered tantamount to sexual harassment. However, their incidence and consequences remain relatively unknown. Understanding about these relationships assume heterosexuality; the emphasis is therefore on the combined effect of inequalities of occupational location and gender. Rarely acknowledged are relationships between co-workers or persons of the same sex. This article summarizes research contrasting heterosexual and lesbian women workers' involvements in sexual relationships with persons from their workplace. The findings indicate that the workplace is an important context for the beginnings of a sexual relationship. Lesbians have greater opportunity to meet partners at work and have more equitable relations (that is, ones with co-workers), whereas heterosexuals more often experience negative consequences from the mix of occupational and gender inequality. The evidence suggests that the truth of the “office affair” more nearly approximates the heterosexual pattern than the lesbian one, though it captures neither terribly well.