Artists, Cooks And IT Engineers Are Most Likely To Date Someone At Work

As workers today spend more time in the office compared to past generations, it may be difficult to maintain a social life, especially one that excludes the people you spend the majority of your time with — your colleagues.

This is why workers are sometimes willing to take the risk of dating someone from the office.

According to Payscale's recently published office romance report, 15 percent out of the 42,000 respondents said they would date someone they work with. One out of five people who gave office romance a shot ended up marrying their colleague.

And artists, cooks and software engineers are those most likely looking for love at any given time, according to the report.

What's the connection between these professions? It all comes down to flexible work hours. "During our research, what we found is that the ones who seem most likely to find love at work are the ones with unusual schedules," says Katie Bardaro, lead economist at PayScale.

"Artists live their lives moment to moment, seeking inspiration for their work and usually work on their own schedule. As for cooks, they tend to be younger and work late hours, sometimes second or third shifts. It's hard to find love when you have weird schedules. You're working with these people all the time and it's a much more casual work environment compared to other office corporate culture."

Software engineers also "work unusual schedules and often have to be on call," Bardaro says. "They have to get up in the middle of the night just in case something happens."

With these extended, later hours, it's more difficult for someone to have a social life or find time for a romantic connection.

Even so, the majority of respondents surveyed for the report don't think it's a good idea to date a co-worker. Although the taboo has "lessened compared to the past," Bardaro says to still proceed with caution.