It Bloomed on Zoom

(WSJ Graphic)

To the surprise of many, working from home has revived the office romance: [bold added]

While you’ve been Zooming and Slacking, more colleagues than you might think have been coupling. A third of workers said they were, or have been, involved with a colleague when the Society for Human Resource Management conducted a survey in January—up from roughly a quarter in early 2020...

Office romance was on the wane when the pandemic struck, rendered obsolete by the popularity of digital matchmaking and cautionary tales from the #MeToo movement. Going remote would finish the job, we assumed.

Instead, two years of relative isolation, the very thing that could have ended dating among co-workers, appears to be reviving it.

The possibility of sexual harassment and the after-effects of a breakup seem less important in the age of COVID:

Many HR departments say relationships among colleagues aren’t top concerns at the moment, given worker safety issues and staffing shortages.

“Does it make the list of things that I’m worried about? No,” says Fran Katsoudas, who heads human resources at Cisco Systems Inc. , where she’s an executive vice president.

COVID-19 has shifted everyone's priorities.

Life goes faster than you used to think, and if you see someone--even on Zoom--who might be the right person, you'd better seize the moment.