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Chalk this up as yet another thing that’s been ruined by the economy: You’ve lost your chance of making out in the copy room with that newly-divorced gal in accounting you’ve been lusting after.
According to experts, office romances and relationships are dying. People just don’t seem to be getting-it-on with their co-workers the way they used to.

The economy’s getting the blame, but not because of the usual reasons, like people being stressed out, or worrying about getting too close to a co-worker since they could be laid off at any moment.

No since the economy tanked, workers have gone into all-out self-preservation mode.  Which means they’re more likely to rat out their co-workers as soon as they see anything go sideways.  Better that co-worker gets fired than you, right?

So people know that if they get into office romances, other co-workers might jump on the opportunity to use it against them.

They’ll tell management about the relationship, and use it to hurt the credibility of the people involved, question their productivity, and make them seem like good candidates for the next round of layoffs.

And a lot of them are even filing lawsuits.  Since 2008, there’s been a 23% rise in the number of lawsuits filed by people who claim that their co-workers’ office romance has created a hostile work environment.Sondra Solovay is a workplace expert.  She says, quote, “It seems like there’s a certain opportunistic element . . . employees who fear for their jobs are making sexual favoritism complaints as a means of ensuring their own job security.”