Catherwood LibraryILR School

With an increasing number of Americans meeting their spouses and significant others at work (see WIT for Aug. 7, 2002), the once widespread aversion by management to office romances is dropping according to a February survey by the American Management Association (AMA). The report shows that growing acceptance of on-the-job relationships is greater among younger managers---almost seventy percent of managers in their thirties and forties are okay with employees dating, as compared to sixty-six percent of managers in their fifties and sixties. The forces of increasing work weeks, decreasing time for socializing outside the workplace, and rising numbers of women in the workforce, that are causing more and more workers to look for life partners among their coworkers, are having the same effect on managers according to the AMA study, and are making such relationships more acceptable.