There’s a favorite expression of mine I’d like to begin this blog post with but can’t due to the vulgar language it contains. You’ve probably heard this cautionary slogan before. It cautions against intertwining your professional and private lives in the punchiest way imaginable.

And, if I’m being honest—it’s pretty good advice.

For better or worse, most of us spend the majority of our time at work. That’s a lot of hours we might rather be elsewhere (unless, of course, we work at LinkNow Media), meeting attractive people of our preferred gender.

So when you find yourself sitting across the desk from a bona fide cutie who’s got both brains and beauty, you might be feeling as if you’ve won the lottery. Why not indulge in a little pleasure with your business?

Honestly, don’t.

Just don’t.

And here’s the best reason why:

When You Date at Work, the Entire Office Deals With Your Relationship

Working at LinkNow Media, I am surrounded by awesome people every day. On breaks and lunches we have a lot of fun. We even play pranks. But when at my desk writing away, I am here to work. I don’t need to know about the goings-on of my coworkers’ private lives, just as they don’t need to know about mine.

Getting to know someone through dating them is a magical and wonderful journey. But as many of us know (myself included), sometimes that journey doesn’t go as planned. Sometimes that journey comes to a screeching halt.

Contemporary dating is a minefield of red flags and negotiating boundaries. It could be very well and great that you and your new paramour are hitting it off and having incredible passionate adventures.

But the rest of us? We already clocked in ten minutes ago. And we really do not need to hear about your couple’s retreat. Or the drama that followed after.

Perfect, you might be thinking. We’ll keep our office romance a secret. Problem solved!

Actually, this doesn’t work either. I don’t need to hear every detail of my coworkers’ personal lives. But you know what I do need?

I need to trust them. And deceiving an entire department about carrying on a fling with a coworker isn’t the sort of move that inspires trust.

Not to mention there’s all sorts of HR complications that come up. And if the relationship ends prematurely as most as tend to do? That’s not just going to be incredibly awkward for you, but probably for your coworkers too.

But here’s the thing. Sometimes you really do meet that special someone. Fate has decided to drop your soulmate into your office. If you’re sure—like, really really sure—that you can’t live without this person in your life even though you work together, there’s one simple rule to make sure it all works out.

Be an adult about it.

And uh, another word of advice?

Get a new hobby that doesn’t involve your crush. Honestly, it’s not healthy for a couple to spend that much time together!