Number of office romances falls as people turn to online dating
Around 1 in 10 couples say they met while working together at the same company.
A new study from Stanford University shows the number of office romances fell by 8% over the past two decades.
In the same time, online dating went from being the least popular way of meeting someone, to the most common.
The study revealed that 39% of couples surveyed met online compared to just 2% in 1995.
Rena Maycock, founder of Intro matchmaking, says there are risks to dating a co-worker.
"Speaking as someone that has met somebody in a work environment, if the relationship goes sour it can get a little tricky," said Ms Maycock.
"It makes life quite awkward then for colleagues because invariably in a break-up you inherit certain friends and then there becomes a divide in the office.
So I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that office romances are on the decline.
In 2017, just 11% of people said they met "through or as co-workers" compared to 19% in 1995.
The new study shows that finding love at the office reached its peak in the 1980's and 1990's.
"It was almost promoted by management, if you like," Ms Maycock said of that era.
"Because if people met in their workplace they would stay in their jobs longer.
"But it's very much frowned upon now and most companies have quite strict policies about office romances and all of the trappings that go along with making advances on colleagues."
The Stanford study showed that 27% of people met their partner through family or a friend and the same number of couples met in a bar or restaurant.
Just 9% of couples surveyed in 2017 met their partner through school or college compared to 19% in 1995.
