Having a 'harmless' office crush really WILL ruin your relationship, suggests new study that finds the romances splits one in 10 couples in 4 months

Crushing on a colleague is not as harmless as you might have assumed, a new study has found.

Researchers from the University of New Brunswick in Canada found that, the more time a person spends around their office crush, the poorer the quality of the relationship with their partner at home.

Over a four month study period involving 542 22-35 year-olds with office crushes, the study authors found increasing decline in sexual desire for the crushers' partner. 

This resulted in roughly one in 10 couples breaking up by the end of the study, which was published in the Journal of Sex Research. 

The participants completed two surveys, one at the beginning of the study and one  four months later. 

Perhaps one of the most famous film and TV crushes is played out in the  2003 blockbuster rom com Love Actually, between Harry, played by Alan Rickman, and his co-worker Mia, played by Heike Makatsch.

Despite 49 percent of participants acknowledging that they and their partner had an exclusive arrangement, most reported being attracted to one or more people outside their relationship. 

Surprisingly, around a third of people with crushes said their partner was aware of their romantic feelings for another person. 

'Ignoring one’s attraction is difficult, even for those in exclusive relationships,' the authors, psychology researchers Charlene Belu and Lucia O’Sullivan, wrote. 

A third of respondents said they met their crush at work, whereas the minority met through a friend, school, or online.  

At the outset of the study, 57 percent of participants didn't desire any change in their relationship to their partner or crush. Most participants also didn't see their crush as harmful to their relationship. 

Another recognizable example of office crushes comes from NBC series, The Office, and the love affair between Pam and Jim.

But over the four month period, the authors found that the greater a participant's attraction to someone outside their relationship, the poorer their relationship quality was. 

Some of the measures of relationship quality they included were sexual satisfaction, investment in the relationship, and overall feelings of fulfillment. 

So, over time, respondents who were really attracted to their crush began to feel less satisfaction in their relationship, sexually and otherwise. 

The authors cautioned that these are subjective measures, and since only one individual in the couple completed the survey, it might not be entirely balanced.

Even though these crushes worsened the relationships, only 12 percent of participants split up with their partner during the study. 

Even fewer actually acted on their crush-  three percent of participants cheated during the study. 

However, 13 percent of respondents reported they would act on their desire if their crush initiated it. 

Previous research has highlighted the frequency at which people strike up romantic relationships in the office. 

A recent poll by the Society for Human Resource Management found around 41 percent of Americans had some sort of romantic encounter with a colleague. 

A thid oof respondents to SHRM study said they got involved with their co-workers because they were in love, and another third took the plunge for the excitement of being with someone new.

A 2023 study by Forbes Advisor survey of 2,000 working Americans found that 40 percent had cheated on their partner with a colleague.