Deliciously scandalous office affairs

A great many of us spend the majority of our waking hours at work, and as such it should come as no surprise that the office is one of the most popular places to find love. And while many of these flames blossom into healthy relationships and even marriages, not all workplace trysts are rainbows and sunshine. Some, unfortunately, sometimes cause high drama and end up with public humiliation for both parties.

The latter has resulted in many workplaces implementing strict policies to guide sexual relationships in the workplace, while others have prohibited it altogether, especially between those who work in the same department.

Were you ever a party, or did you witness a scandalous office romance that just didn’t stand the test of time? All Woman readers share stories of just how nasty failed office romances can get.

Amoy, 33, production manager:

I was dating a guy at work for close to six months. We tried to keep it under wraps, but that didn’t last long. He told me he was newly single and bruised from his relationship, but he found a kind of peace in me for which he was grateful. By this time people were dropping hints to the tune of, “His girl is crazy and she is going to give you a proper whooping”. I approached him to find out if he was still with this lady, he said absolutely not. Two weeks to the day of asking him I drove into work one morning and was getting ready to exit my car, when someone (who I later learned was this man’s ex), first used a piece of board to shatter two of my windows, then hit me in my face, then threw a substance on me. I was in the hospital for a few days. She had attacked the guy I was dating at his house earlier. It was a devastating encounter and I decided to sever ties not because he lied, but because the woman was obsessed with him and he was weak. He dropped all charges and had the audacity to ask if I would do the same. Right then it was clear to me that they deserved each other because they were both sick.

Tiffany, 36, store manager:

The couple I used to work with are Chinese nationals. When the woman went back to their country alone for eight months the man and I started an affair. At that time I got pregnant and I decided I didn’t want to get rid of it. I didn’t see the baby as a meal ticket as everyone had suggested, but rather as my child and I didn’t want to do away with something growing inside me. Anyway, the wife came back and honestly was so good to me that I felt terrible. However, her husband and I still had a relationship going strong. On the morning after my emergency C-section she was there and I couldn’t say no. When she saw the baby I couldn’t explain anything away. She stood there and cried, and I, still hazy after surgery, could barely find anything decent to say. She said, “Your baby is beautiful, I have to leave”, quickly put down the gifts, and left. Things got ugly on her way out. Her husband was coming in and she confronted him. I heard it took four guards to release him from her grip and get her calm. He came in eventually and following that, he had to get his sister to check in on me until things cooled down. Later at the hospital all the nurses and doctors came in to get a glimpse of me under the guise that they were doing checks on me.

Michelle, 27, bartender:

Three of us rotated at a bar and one of the girls got involved with a nice browning who was one of the owners. One week they were having a little fuss and she went home and didn’t tell him. He came to the businessplace and was looking for her, but found out that she had already left. He was cut up about it and started telling us all he wanted to do for her. The second girl on the shift started to take advantage of him because he was drunk. She wanted to swipe him away so that she would get taken care of too. But it so happened that somebody told the other girl what was up because most people at work rated her and saw that this other girl was just badmind. She told me she would pay me if I called in sick so she could work alongside the girl. They didn’t know she was going to be there in my place so they were messing around, and when the girl reached they were in the back doing their thing. She got a proper smack down and the browning had to beg the original girl to take him back.

Shyanne, 31, police officer:

At the station I was previously stationed, an inspector known to scatter his seed everywhere he went, even though he was married, was involved with a female corporal. After a while she got pregnant with twins and he allegedly told her to abort it because he had his family. However, she had always wanted children and told him she wouldn’t. Now that she has the babies — twin girls — I hear most of the financial burden rests on her. He stays with her and the children sometimes because he often stays one parish away from his family, and they have no clue that he has this woman and children. Anyway, this woman is so comfortable that she is saying she is ready to go for the boy.

Henry, 36, security officer:

I was working in a security company and I hooked up with the boss. Things were going great at first until I cheated on her and she found out. When that happened, she started sabotaging everything for me. She gave me the worst shifts, locations, and work partners. It was a nightmare. She took back my hours and I no longer got overtime so it was difficult to provide for my children. She made my co-workers uncomfortable because she wanted them to play snitch and so one day I decided I would quit. She behaved badly. She started one big cussing and wouldn’t give me a recommendation so I could move on. I had to go to one of the other bosses behind her back and he helped me out so I could get another job in another company.

Stacy, 43, engineer:

I was working at a company about nine years ago and made the mistake of dating a computer engineer there. This didn’t work out and he started to stalk me and even some other co-workers close to me. The last straw for me and the point I knew I needed him gone, was when he placed a picture of me on the work server— one close to nude. He had taken it while I was asleep. It was embarrassing. It became the centre of office gossip and I eventually had to leave for my sanity. He, on the other hand, was fired for it.

Leonardo, 28, supervisor:

At my workplace my boss is married but sleeps with various other women in the company, including one of the senior managers with whom he has a child. He has no respect for any of the women though, even though he treats his children well. He’s not even attractive at all — obese, diabetic and smelly — but money talks. Well one day he went out for a lunch date with one of his paramours, and returned to work drunk, half-dressed, shirt inside out, and smelling of sex. The man didn’t even have the decency to shower. When his babymother saw him, she was embarrassed but she just shook her head even though everybody was talking about it. They’re still together today though, and when he got another woman pregnant the other day he just bought the manager a Range Rover to keep her quiet. I guess she likes the security that he provides and she thinks she can’t do better, and even has her ‘perfect family’ up as her WhatsApp profile photo.

Marie, 44, courier agent:

One of the younger girls in the office, who is very attractive, is always being courted by the men in the company. She has been linked to a couple, and last we heard was that she was together with one of the drivers. That was until a new agent came to work with us, and though we warned him, he was just as smitten with the girl as all the other men were. Well story came to bump when her boyfriend found her in the conference room one evening in a compromising position with the new guy, and fighting happened, and the new guy had to leave. Few months later she was visibly pregnant, and had the support of her driver boyfriend, even though we took bets to see which one of the two was going to be the actual father. When the baby was born we all waited patiently for the pictures, and shock of shocks, the baby didn’t even look remotely like either guy. The older the child gets the more he resembles one of our senior managers, who is a grandfather!