Not Enough Promotions & Pay Raises To Go Around!
It's Either You OR Schmoopie:
Are You Willing To Be The One To Back Out?

Office Romance Problems Effects & Etiquette (DOs & DON’Ts)

There Are Not Enough Promotions & Pay Raises To Go Around!
It’s Either You Or Schmoopie:
Are You Willing To Be The One To Back Out?

This video and the next are very different from the rest of this Sex And The Workplace Deck, in that we go past the professional, into the personal, by confronting you with two very inconvenient truth bombs, about your office romance. So buckle up!

Up till now, through all the havoc your office romance was causing all around you, at the office and with all the rising tensions between you and your coworkers, and you and your boss ; you had one personal silver lining going for you, to offset this professional entanglement: The fact that you and your Schmoopie were a united front. A loving unit of two, facing it all, together.

Today and next time, however, you’re going to find out how that could, potentially, reverse, making your office romance situation, a most frustrating and painful one, causing you a career setback, even your workplace.

How so? Well, we are going to see what happens if you are both equally driven. And it’s not going to be lackluster or wishy-washy – we are going straight for the jugular, by forcing you to entertain two unsettling, yet very realistic, prospects:

The first is the clash between your personal life, i.e. your office romance, and your professional life, i.e. your promotion and pay raise aspirations.

The second unsettling, but realistic prospect is the heartache of a breakup of your office romance, with the added stress of continuing to work shoulder-to-shoulder, on the same team, afterwards.

And here is the spoiler: If you are both equally driven, you are on a collision course, with the countdown already in progress, and the collision just waiting to happen.

So hold on tight, and let’s run this simulation, of how your office romance might, not only come between you and your chances for a promotion and pay raise, but also come between you and your Schmoopie, and how it could make you face a heart-wrenching dilemma: Love or Money…

So, which will it be for you: Love or Money?
How sure are you of your choice?
Would you like to reconsider?
See if it changes by the end of this video…
But for now, brace yourself for this ride – we’ve got a lot to cover – let’s go!

The no. 7 office romance BossProblem, that might screw up both your chances for a promotion and a pay raise, and your relationship, is:
7. If Both Of You Are Eligible – NONE Of You Is Getting It! (Yet another inconvenient truth bomb to the pile…)

But, this is only the half of it. The professional half. The second, personal, half is as inconvenient and as true. And that is: If You Are Both Equally Driven – Your Lover Is Actually Your Competitor!

See? I told you told today we go past the professional, into the personal.

And this lover-competitor inconvenient truth bomb – you may brush it under the rug all you want. But it’s there. Lurking. It will come to the forefront, when an actual opportunity for a promotion arises. Especially for a coveted position.

All the more so, if it “comes on the market” (so to speak) only once in a blue moon, and (as with any other promotion) it can land in the lap of only one person.

So let’s break it all down. First, The professional half (because that’s the main reason we’re here).

In case you and your Schmoopie are both truly eligible for a promotion and/or a pay raise (or just think you both are) ;
and since it is not likely that two coworkers can be promoted at the same time, from the same team (certainly not to the same position) ;
and since it is also not likely that two coworkers can get the exact same pay raise, at the same time, if at all ;
then, when the opportunity arises, your boss would probably just rule both of you out.

He, or she, would not want to deal with the possibility of one of you being disgruntled. Why? Three reasons:

a. it is more difficult to manage such a person
b. it hurts team morale and performance, and
c. why rock the boat even further?

The situation of having an office romance within your team (speaking from your boss’ point of view) makes it delicate and intricate enough to manage. No need to add to it, the tension of the couple having issues with one another. Which, a choice of one over the other, for a promotion and/or a pay raise, might very well do.

And then, the couple might also break up, so even a greater headache, in regards to tensions within the team – who needs it? Better just pass them both over.

At this point, there is an important emphasis and distinction that needs to be made: What I have just described is different from the previous video (office romance BossProblem no. 6) where your boss wouldn’t promote you, or give you a pay raise, because of your “Brangelina” fused brand. (If you’ve missed that one, or any of the others, catch up on the lot right here).

How is it different? Well, here, on no. 7, your boss is consciously and deliberately overruling both of you, despite acknowledging that both of you are eligible.

Why? because he or she is afraid of the ramifications of promoting only one of you, or giving a pay raise to only one of you, or giving a higher pay raise to one of you, over the other – because it’s a potential mess.

Whereas in the previous video, no. 6, your boss did not even consider you, because your individual professional brand, was fused with that of your Schmoopie (hence, “Brangelina”) to the point that it was unclear, what unique contribution, if any, either of you bring to the table.

So here, on no. 7, you are a contender who gets disqualified, because of your office romance.
Whereas in the previous video, no. 6, you were not even a contender, because of your office romance.

[I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody – Marlon Brando, On The Waterfront, 1954 – my Remington Steele syndrome just kicked in again. Forgive me, it’s on a Tourette’s level by now, it’s a condition, what can I say… Just have mercy on my soul, and let’s move on].

There are other instances where your boss might decide against both of you, even though you are both deemed eligible, just because of your couple-hood. Meaning that, had you not been a couple, he or she would have chosen one of you.

Those instances are: Any kind of downsizing – which is, as we all know, Corporate for “firing” [I can’t stand Corporate euphemisms. I prefer clear, direct speech. I find it more truthful and respectful, whenever dealing with adult, hopefully intelligent, people].

Anyway… Such firing could be the result of any substantial shock to the business:
Be it internally driven, because of losing a big account, the company’s product or service becoming obsolete, and so forth ;
Or externally driven, such as a national recession or even a depression, or worse yet, a Global one.
Or all of the above.

Say your boss is putting together that infamous list, of who’s going to get fired (the list on which, by the way, he will find himself too, soon after – he or she). Here, once again, if it is impossible to accommodate both of you, he or she will prefer to sack both of you.

Why? Because why add to the already brewing tensions, by keeping only one of you, and, potentially, have that one be resentful and disgruntled, because Schmoopie was sacked.

Thus, in such an instance, your couple-hood will have not “only” hindered your promotion and pay raise, but, actually rendered you (both) unemployed.

Which, does not mean it’s not worth it for you. As always, I’m just laying the facts before you, as nobody else will, so that you can be aware of all the risks, and make an informed decision.