THE PROSPECT of yet another late-night meeting is brightened considerably when you realise that the colleague opposite you has a great sense of humour and nice teeth. Whatever takes your fancy, right? Well no, not if your work contract has a “no love, please” clause. Look at our guide before you leap into bed.

1. What’s the attraction? First consider the nature of your office fancy. As the psychiatrist and broadcaster Dr Raj Persaud says in European Business (March): “Increased stress at work conspires to produce more flings — bonding with others is one of the commonest ways of dealing with stress.”

2. Power games. Going out with your boss is plain daft, according to Leslie Mountain, manager of the legal casework and development unit at the Equal Opportunities Commission. “If you manage a person, you have to appraise their performance. The chances are there will be an unequal partnership at some point.”

3. Dig out your employee handbook. One employer in five has formal policies to manage inter-colleague relationships, according to the business advisory service Croner, but it could be a sackable offence if the relationship conflicts with the company’s commercial interests.

4. Tell the boss. Romance is personal but it’s a good idea to let your boss know. “Your employer is more likely to be concerned if they pick it up on the grapevine,” says Richard Smith, head of service development at Croner.

5. Whose business it is anyway? “Workers’ romances are their own business, not their employers’,” says Andy Cross, head of employment at the law firm Brabners Chaffe Street. “It’s not the affair per se,” that Cross says employers can act on, “but the impact it has on the employees’ ability and performance on the job.” Don’t give them any excuse by being distracted at work.

6. Be discreet. Start taking two-hour lunches with the new love of your life and you might find that your colleagues stop making you tea.

7. It may not last. Love is a wonderful thing but sitting opposite someone who fills you with revulsion and regret is not. Weigh up how much you like your job considering that you may want to move on when the affair goes cold.

8. Bunny boilers. Persistent and unwanted attention from a jilted colleague may constitute sexual harassment, but Leslie Mountain recommends caution. “If you have lost trust in the other person, write to them asking: ‘can we agree that this won’t affect our working relationship?’, ” she says. “Always be low key and reasonable. Otherwise the pointy finger can come back on you.”

9. Be willing to lose your job. The US management guru Jack Welch met the editor of the Harvard Business Review, Suzy Wetlaufer, for an interview and started an affair. The scandal cost Wetlaufer her job. He thought it would not be a “criminal offence”, Welch told Newsweek (April 4). “She said, ‘This is Harvard — they won’t want any bad press.’ She was right.”

10. Lotharios beware. If you’ve had a string of office encounters, your employer is likely to take a dim view. Richard Smith says: “An employer could suddenly find that they have a high turnover of staff in one area and they’d be entitled to say, ‘You can’t use the office as your personal harem. Leave your colleagues alone’.”

COSTLY AFFAIRS

Harry Stonecipher was forced last month to resign as chief executive of Boeing after an affair with a female executive. The board ruled that his behaviour was unacceptable under the code of conduct that Stonecipher had introduced to end company scandals.

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