They say that dating at work or hooking your partner up with a job at your company is often a bad idea. But that's not always the case. Some couples are actually able to make the whole work-life/love-life balance thing work.
So we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community who work with their S.O.s to share how it works in their relationship. Here's what they had to say:
1. "We actually met at a company conference. He was living a state away at the time, supporting a different office, and I was at our headquarters. About six months into our relationship, we decided to see what options we had for him to move up to our headquarters. We went from seeing each other maybe two days out of the week to living AND working together every day.
2. "My husband and I started a dog training company the same month the pandemic hit. We were not married at the time but had been together for over five years and had been prepping to do this for awhile. It’s been the most wild ride trying to navigate a global pandemic, a new marriage, and a start-up company, but by the skin of our teeth, we’ve done it.
"We have strict 'no work hours' where we avoid the topic at all costs (which is very hard when our company takes clients almost 24/7 and we now have a few employees in the field). We also try our best to communicate what we both need personally and professionally to make both ends of our relationship truly work."
3. "It was great! I met my now-husband when I started working as a waitress and he was working in the kitchen. We would talk often during work hours, but we never stopped doing our jobs. Management was very happy with us because we never brought our relationship drama or PDA to work. We were so unproblematic that management would schedule us for the same shifts, and they would let us leave at the same time so we could drive together."
4. "My husband and I met at work almost 10 years ago. We worked in an office environment and decided not to tell our colleagues. At first, it made sense not to tell anyone because it was a new thing, and I didn’t want it to be weird if things soon fizzled out. But after months passed, it seemed weird to suddenly drop this bomb on everyone that we’d been secretly dating. So we didn’t tell anyone FOR TWO YEARS!
5. "My husband and I are both employers at our job. Co-employers I guess you can say. We try our best not to talk about work when we get home, but there are often times we need to talk through a situation about an employee and agree on how to handle it. There is no small talk about what our day was like at dinner because we were both there.
"We made a rule early on in our career that we could only talk about work if we ask permission. One of us will say, 'May I talk about work for five minutes?' It helps us control when and how long we talk about work situations outside of the office."
6. "I met my now-husband at work. He works in IT, and I’m in HR, so at first, we hid our relationship. But once we moved in together, we were less careful about keeping it a secret. I definitely got some pushback from my boss about dating a coworker, but it wasn’t a no-no in our employee handbook, so there’s nothing they could do about it. We’ve been together for six years now and married for one of those, so I would say things worked out!"
—Anonymous
7. "I worked with my boyfriend-to-fiancé at his family business for two years before we made the decision for me to quit. Working with his parents was the worst thing ever, and it was hard to separate work-life from home-life.
8. "My husband and I met at work over 20 years ago. We have complementary jobs in tech and a ton of respect for each others' skill sets, and we've worked together at four different companies. Most of the time, it's great! We know we can rely on each other, we always understand what the other person is dealing with at work, and we build each other up. The only time things got sticky was when I was his boss for a couple of years.
"He should never have reported to me, but after multiple rounds of layoffs, he was shuffled onto my team. We still worked together really well, but I struggled with giving him the raises and bonuses he deserved when I knew there were other people on the team who were doing almost as good of a job as he was, and who needed the money more. That wasn't fair to anyone. I don't want to be in that position again, but I would work together with my best friend every day if I could."
—Anonymous
9. "I met my current husband at work over 13 years ago when I was getting engaged to someone else. Through my first marriage, we were the best of work friends. Our friendship was no pressure since I was married. It was good in a difficult workplace to have a reliable confidant. After I left my husband, we decided to date and moved in together in less than a year.
"We kept it secret, and then COVID hit, making it easier to be discreet until I got pregnant. Once we took our parental leave, folks figured it out. I am leaving our job literally tomorrow to start a virtual job to be closer to our son. The number one thing I will miss at work is him. Living and working together worked for us, but I know it isn’t for everyone. I will still see him at home, LOL."
—Anonymous
10. "My partner and I met at work back in 2014. Our company had a weekly happy hour that I frequented. He didn't, but by chance came one night with some other members of his team, and that's how we were introduced. Eventually, I asked him out to dinner on LinkedIn, since I didn't have his number at the time or any other contact info.
11. "I met my now-fiancé at work in a restaurant where he is a supervisor and I'm a server. It's great — we can help each other and bounce off of each other when it's busy and also help the other when we're stressed or annoyed about something. I wouldn't change anything about it, and I can't imagine working at another job without him."
12. "My now husband and I worked together twice, once in a pub and once in an office role. We would sneak off to have quickies on our lunch breaks. The anticipation was so hot and the afternoon was just...."
—Anonymous
13. "My fiancé and I both work from home but for different companies. Instead of the usual coffee breaks we would take in an office, we have short cuddle breaks. We eat lunch together most days, and on the days when either of us needs to go into the office, we find it really hard as we miss each other."
14. "My husband and I are both epidemiologists. We work for two different programs in the same health department. It’s not hard to take a step back and be professional at work, then revert back to being goofy spouses when we are home. When the pandemic began, we were working together on the response team for very long days, and we were under a lot of stress (as was everyone else in the world).
"It felt like any mistake we might make could cost countless numbers of lives. We definitely had moments where we snapped at each other out of frustration, but we knew it was because of the situation we were in and not out of true anger with each other. At the end of the day, all we wanted to do was take a walk with each other and vent about work. We each understood EXACTLY what the other was going through, and I really think it helped us maintain our mental health during the response.
"Now things are becoming a little more normal at work again. We still talk about our jobs and projects, and our goals for our programs and our careers. I’m not an incredibly social person, but I never get tired of talking to that guy. I don’t think I could have made it through the past two years without him."
—Anonymous
15. "We both work for the same company (he is in manufacturing; I am in sales), so we get to ride in to drop our son off at school together, arrive at work together, and leave together, but everything in between, we rarely see or bug each other unless it's work related. And my area (rental sales) is totally separate from manufacturing (purchase sales and repair), so we don't really need to work with each other on much.
"We do have lunches together when we aren't too busy, so it all works out pretty well! If you are considering working with your spouse/significant other, think about how much time you would have together and apart, and if you can handle that."
16. "We were a couple before we were working together, but I was at the company first. I thought it would be amazing to be able to work with them, but I realized how wrong I was after about a month. We have different work ethics. I pride myself on mine, but it was obvious they didn’t care as much — which only made the job harder.
17. "We get ready together, commute together, and go home together. We don’t see each other around the office much because we’ve made a deliberate effort to be professional at work. We don’t sit next to each other in meetings or go to lunch, but everyone knows we are dating. My favorite thing is he will give me a wink or blow me a kiss every once in awhile when he walks by my cubicle. I wouldn’t change it for the world."
—Anonymous
18. "My husband and I work for different divisions of the same company. We had never even worked in the same building until the pandemic. We were all sent home in the summer of 2020, and we've been working three feet apart ever since. It is actually terrific!
"We laugh, we bounce ideas off one another, we give feedback to each other — it has made us both better at our jobs. If he's having a hard day, I can see it and pivot to help, plus I understand his resulting moods. Sure, sometimes we fight over the temperature, but on the whole, it has done so much for our relationship."
19. "In 2014, I met a guy working at a large chain bookstore. We clicked immediately and started dating. He was up for a promotion to management at that time, and one day, our general manager pulled him into the office and basically told him that he had to choose me or the promotion since management couldn’t have relationships with floor workers. He said it was an easy choice and turned down the promotion.
20. "It’s honestly the best. I met my husband at work. We started dating and got married all while being coworkers. Soon we’re moving on to find different jobs, but there’s nothing that I regret about it. Knowing that I have my best friend and my support there when I need him, and when we’re frustrated, we can look at each other from across the room and help each other, especially working in a hospital during Covid, has just been a blessing. I’ll really miss it."
21. "The first time we dated 10 years ago was rough. We were young, in the same department (like our desks were across and facing each other), and in completely different head spaces. The breakup left a ton of tension on the team, and I had a hard time emotionally as I was more invested than him. Skip ahead four years, and I was at a different company when we reconnected.
"He referred me back to the company we met at, and we were in completely different departments. We had grown a lot in the intervening years, and are still together today. While our roles have changed over the last six years, we live together, survived quarantine without too much trauma, and now have roles that interact more. There are some days when it's hard, but overall, we appreciate that we can commiserate when things get rough or celebrate the wins."
—Anonymous
22. And finally, "My significant other and I knew each other for a long time before we started working together. Being coworkers actually helped launch our relationship. We travel for work, and after several months of long drives and traveling the country together, we realized how much we care about each other outside of work. We work incredibly well together as a team. We really build each other up and play into our strengths while understanding our weaknesses."
