What I learned from sleeping with my boss
IT has been a feature of organisations since the dawn of time; the power dynamics in the workplace as well as the many hours spent there leads to inevitable dalliances between workers, and sometimes these happen with bosses and lower- level staff.
Sometimes things work out great, resulting in lasting relationships; but office love doesn’t always have a happy ending, especially when you’re dating those in charge.
Below, both sexes tell All Woman the lessons they learned from sleeping with their bosses.
RC:
It gets you nowhere. You’re in it for something and so is he. When he gets what he wants, he will not treat you any better or differently from other employees. Also, he will make demands that you probably can’t always fulfil and when you can’t, he’ll hold it over your head.
NA:
You’ll never live in peace or feel that you earned anything on your own. He always reminded me that he got me to where I am today.
AA:
It’s just for the moment and it changes nothing. Do your due diligence. I got neither the promotion, the raise, nor the ring which I swore I would have received. He never left his family and I eventually had to leave the job.
TH:
If you play with fire you get burnt. I slept with her knowing she was married and fell into the trap that it was just for fun and I’d get the promotion to manager, which I kept expressing an interest in. To cut a long story short, the affair went on for about three months, then her husband found out and I was fired.
MH:
In my case my boss was my teacher. I also worked with in the evenings as his assistant while at university. I was promised A’s that would help me maintain a high GPA and even incentives like a phone and cash. The truth is, I never got A’s as my papers were marked by other lecturers. So in the end I lost and I felt embarrassed for selling myself short.
RMT:
She would make passes at me which I thought was just simple flirting until she closed her door one night when we were working late and said I shouldn’t worry about anything. Well, she got pregnant, thrown out, and her son hasn’t forgiven her to date. I lost my job. She was forced to resign because of the scandal, and at the end of the day it revealed that workplace romances aren’t the best. It’s unprofessional and when the scene gets ugly, it gets real ugly.
JD:
I dated my female supervisor and when news broke that we were involved she accused me of harassment and said she feared doing anything because of my personality. While I never harassed her, what happened is that because of my bold personality no one believed me and I was suspended. It taught me that when it comes to things like that, no one will vouch for you.
