Question for those who work - Affairs at Work

[AllAtIt]

Change of name obviously for this question.

I work part time in a large place. There is a great social life attached to the work and I have a lot of very good friends there, male and female.

Over the time I've worked there I think almost everyone I know there has had some kind of affair or one night thing with someone else there. Most people are married or living together but it still goes on. I spoke to my friend at work about this and she said its not just our place, everywhere she has worked is like that. I do get a ton of attention at work from men, married and single and they really dont care that I'm married but I've behaved myself, even though I do go on all the nights out.

So, what I was wondering is, are all places of work like this? How do you cope with it?

The thing is, it gives me the impression that no one married remains faithful which would be a sad state of affairs really. Do you think that's true?

Aargh, how naive was I? Have just found out that after our work party a single female colleague left together with a married male colleague who has a young child I don't want to post any more details in case his wife is a Mumsnetter, but honestly . I don't come across him very much in my work but she sits about 5 metres away from me and is quite senior (as is he). Yuk Yuk Yuk.

I see a lot of the down side of this in my work (employment law). There definitely do seem to be sectors where it is much more prevalent. the police seem especially bad for goings-on....

Some factors which seem to contribute:

• longs hours and stress leading to;
• boozy nights out;
• large workforce with much transferring between teams.

I depends on the strength of the original relationships and the place of work really.

In my office, i know of several men who've cheated on their wives/gfriends, with females in and out of the office.
Can think of 2 females in 3 years who've done likewise. (There are around 100 people in my office)

My boss actually seemed to think i'd find it impressive that he'd cheated on his wife when she was still his fiance and after they had married. Amazingly enough, i didn't.

I have never had the impression that it is all over the place, but it has certainly happened in the work places where I have been. It is not the norm though, and I dont rate anyone's chances of getting away without all their colleagues knowing.