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The challenge is how to handle that situation.

Exactly. Like simply wait for enough (obvious) green lights before making a move. Like, you know, mature, consenting adults. A modicum of tact and subtlety couldn't hurt, either ;)

No matter how much people try to avoid romantic entanglements at work, it happens.

And indeed, it's silly (and borderline delusional) to pretend otherwise.



Like simply wait for enough (obvious) green lights before making a move. Like, you know, mature, consenting adults.

The standard male cognitive bias is to become convinced that there are green lights when they may not exist. And a bias towards pushing the point so that women who might be convincible can be convinced.

This makes evolutionary sense because there is little cost to receiving extra rejections, and a definite reproductive benefit to a hard to predict acceptance. However this bias means that women naturally receive more unwanted offers than wanted ones. And dealing with unwanted offers on top of workplace dynamics (particularly when there are power dynamics) is a real problem.

In short, biology ensures that men will tend to screw up. And workplace requirements make it important to push back against this natural tendency.


There's a big gulf between romantic entanglement and unwanted, creepy flirtation.


Yup - a huge one. So a good rule of thumb might be: If you have to ask yourself, "Would it be creepy if I..." -- well, yes, it probably would be.


That can fail in a most face-palming way. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG1_hw7UhsM


Yeah, that's pretty clearly deep into the skeeze.




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