Might have developed a work crush.. advice?

[youcantescapeyourownmindrose]

I work in the Civil Service in an office environment. It wasn't an immediate crush but has started over the past couple of weeks, I don't really know the man.

I'm an AO, he's a HEO (if that means anything to anyone!) basically 2 grades senior to me, however he is not my direct HEO and he's not in my department.

He delivered a training course to my team, and very occasionally I have to send referrals to him but that's it.
I had to message him on Teams the other day and then he called me to discuss the situation. He was really sweet and nice (I know this is part of his job)

There's a social event coming up in 3 weeks that we'll both be attending. I've no issues with approaching him, I mean knowing my luck he'll likely not be single, but I can hope.

Any suggestions/advice? We have a couple of mutual friends.

Bumping

You've got mutual friends so you obviously know he's single. I would say hello, buy him a drink and see how it goes.

That's a good idea!
I'll see how it goes at this event.
I'll likely see him around the office in the next 3 weeks prior to that, so maybe I should try and talk to him then?

Find out subtly if he's single before even bothering. Your mutual friends should know.
It doesn't sound like he's flirted with you, or you've even had drinks together with others after work etc. so he might be taken by surprise you're interested.
But if he is indeed single, shoot your shot. Just ask if he'd like to go for lunch one day, then if that goes well, drinks after work, then who knows...
you may turn out to have little in common, and it may not go how you want. If you can deal with working with or near him despite that then you've nothing to lose.

Er, yes. Talk to him. Why wouldn't you?

No, I wouldn't outside friendly chat should you bump into each other. However at a social event, sidle over and say you're going to the bar if he wants anything then dazzle him with charm.

Yeah I think it'd be a big surprise to him as we've never even had a proper conversation apart from this work thing.

Would a HEO be allowed to date an AO even if not in the same team? That does concern me (assuming he'd even be interested!)

I've no issues with being rejected as long as they're still friendly afterwards and don't treat me like I've got two heads for daring to ask them out (speaking from experience!) obviously they don't owe me anything but suggesting a date is hardly a declaration of love and it's a shame that it makes a small number of people run like the wind.

Of course. I’m CS too and the only rule is they don’t like couples working in same dept but we’ve never had that happen. Though I know loads of people who met at work, including two people who met their long term partner at work via an affair

Scandal!
That's good to know, I know some people will insist you should never date a colleague, and I can absolutely see why. However many people do seem to meet like that.