When in a new relationship, the common practice is usually to wait until things get serious enough, before telling your friends about it. Normally, breaking the news is harder when dating a coworker, but important all the same. The big question, however, is how do you keep the office romance a secret before you can disclose details to your colleagues? Conversely, is it wise to disclose the relationship, especially when you have a strict company relationship policy?

It is reported that 54% of people have had sex with their colleagues, a practice that is dangerous, in most instances. Thankfully, as opined by Nicole Williams, author of the book ‘Girl On Top’ and career expert at LinkedIn, there are ways to successfully date a coworker, undetected. Having previously dated a colleague, Williams gives advice on do’s and don’ts of dating a coworker partly based on her own experience. Despite all this, sleeping with your officemate can be a tricky business, especially when things go south.

This makes us curious about the realities of office romance, and if it is worth the risk. Is this behaviour rampant because of positive experiences or people just ignore the terrible repercussions? How bad can office romance get? What are the stories?

With that in mind, let’s look at 15 terrifying office romance confessions that will make you rethink the direction you and your flirtatious colleague are taking.

15. The Bloody Bathroom Accident

Anita was secretly having an affair with her boss for one year. All was well until she had a close shave, an almost life and death situation, that almost let the cat out of the bag. It was after a great day at a wedding when the two lovebirds, sufficiently drunk from the festivities, decided to indulge in a moment of passion. At around 5:00 am, when the man woke up to pee, he unfortunately slipped and passed out after splitting his head open on the side. Anita of course rushed to the scene, still naked. On the bathroom filled with blood, she began slapping her boss to help him regain consciousness. The next day at work, she spent the entire time feigning ignorance as her boss recounted the news of his near death experience.

14. Unnecessarily Emotional

One night stands are meant to be just that – a one time thing, with no strings attached and devoid of deep emotions. This was not the case for one woman who hooked up with her co-worker. After talking about their exes, she ended up crying a river of tears in front of him. Throughly embarrassed, she did not know how to face her colleague at work after exposing such a vulnerable side of her. Things just became extremely awkward between them after that. Luckily, the next day, 10 colleagues were laid off, and her one-night stand was part of that group. So, thankfully, she never had to see that person again, a ‘miracle’ that is usually not experienced by most people.

13. Misunderstood Message

Kate has a colleague who did not have any Christmas plans. Out of empathy, she decided to invite him over to celebrate the holidays with her family. He was kind enough to bring along a gift: a beautiful snowflake pin accompanied by a poem. Kate was elated by this kind gesture, and was grateful to the guy. Sadly, however, things went south when they resumed work. Her colleague’s demeanour turned nasty, and his behaviour towards her was so vile that she had to change departments. Years later, Kate realized that the poem and pin combination was a marriage proposal, and that her coworker didn’t take her ‘refusal’ kindly.

12. Option B

Halley innocently went on a date with her coworker, wishing that a great relationship would blossom. To her dismay, her potential boyfriend confessed to her that he was still living with his ex partner. As a result, she ended the date immediately. Later on that night, when she received a call from the guy, she still held hope that he chose her and kicked the other woman out. To her shock, it was actually a distress call after the guy got locked out of the house by his ex. Instead of asking for a second chance, he was pleading with his ‘option B’ to pick him up. Halley never showed up, forcing him to sleep on his porch.

11. A Baby Is Not Enough

Truth is some office romance stories end up with a happily ever after ending, while others end up with drama. Some relationships progress to serious heights, but sadly don’t make it to the end, even when a baby is involved. This is exactly what happened to Roxie. After seriously dating her co-worker, and conceiving their baby, Roxie’s office relationship did not work out. While this was a sad experience for her, she had to face the worst yet. Her ex still worked in the same office, sitting a few desks away. Basically, her lover was turned into a baby daddy who didn’t care anymore.

10. The Girl In Between

Vickie liked a guy at the office and a relationship kicked off. Everything was perfect until she found out that the guy had a girlfriend. Worse still, the other woman was pregnant. This new revelation caused Vickie to end the relationship. However, the relief was short lived because, a few weeks later, the pregnant girlfriend joined the same office. Things were particularly awkward since her colleagues knew about her short lived office romance with the baby’s father. Now Vickie was stuck befriending the pregnant girlfriend, and even forced to listen to stories about her ex.

9. Muted Punch

Being a bit open with their office relationship, a couple would attend parties together to have fun. During one instance, the woman invited her boyfriend to a party, but sadly, he could not handle his liquor. He turned into a complete nuisance and embarrassment, and began acting in a weird manner. Unfortunately, the woman herself was too drunk to notice, and could not ask him to behave himself. The situation took a sad turn when the woman’s friend punched the boyfriend in the face. Although she began to cry, her boyfriend didn’t think twice about leaving her at the party all by herself. Now they remain colleagues, but they haven’t spoken since that drunken office brawl.

8. It’s Not Exclusive Honey

When you keep the relationship with your colleague a secret, do you think s/he’s only sleeping with you? How many more potential secret partners is your colleague seeking out in the office? As much as this seems far-fetched, it is regrettably exactly what happened to one woman. Emmy was sleeping with her boss for a few months, thinking that they were exclusive. During a girl’s night out, she was devastated when another female colleague revealed that she was also having an affair with the boss, but was sworn to secrecy.  Eventually, they both  approached their boss, and he left the office after a few weeks.

7. The Naked Man

A perverted boss could be any woman’s nightmare, especially when he seems immune to the system. Luckily, with a good HR department this issue can be sorted out in sixty minutes, like one woman found out. Diana began a romantic relationship with her co-worker, and as their relationship grew steadily, their boss started suspecting and became jealous. Despite having a wife and kids, he wanted to date Diana, who was clearly disinterested. Her boss responded weirdly by constantly sending her naked pictures of himself. Being fed up with his advances, Diana reported to the HR department, presented her evidence, and within an hour, her boss was sacked.

6. Break It Off At Your Own Risk

A high school teacher was posted to a new school, and immediately connected with a policeman stationed in the building. At first, it was like a honeymoon; the two lovebirds behaved like teenagers, sneaking into the boiler room just to make out. After a while, her students found out, and they began making fun of their relationship. As she dealt with this issue, the teacher also found out her man was a fraud who already had a live-in girlfriend. She was disappointed and broke it off with him. As a result, the man became vindictive and he went as far as not helping the teacher when a fight broke out in her classroom.

5. Dodged A Bullet

Megan worked with a staffing company, where she encountered different job seekers. One day as she went about her job, a job seeker she was attracted to came by to seek employment. The guy checked in frequently, and after talking many times, they decided to exchange numbers. Megan was seriously crushing on the guy, and to be extra careful about this new guy in her life, she decided to use her professional skills to conduct a background check on him. Thankfully, she was able to dodge a bullet. Through her search she found out that the guy was actually a jail bird. He has been in and out of prison several times, for offences ranging from domestic violence to strangulation.

4. No Shame Ex

Lizzy’s job sometimes demanded that the employees work on boats, and then sleep in cabins if they had to work late. One particular night, she was trying to fall asleep in a cabin with four other colleagues, two of which was her crush and an ex. During the night her ex began to snore so loudly she actually couldn’t fall sleep. The snoring turned into heavy breathing, and got faster and heavier. At the same time, there was movement coming from his bunk, and then the breathing stopped. Lizzy realized the worst after she heard a girl burp in the bunk. It turns out Lizzy listened to her ex receiving head.

3. Lover Turns To Hater

At her first attempt working retail, Dan took Ann under his wing. Although he was a year or two younger than Ann, she thought she had struck workplace gold because she’d landed someone who had the experience and mentorship capabilities needed to kick start her career. After a few months, the two colleagues grew too close and innocent office flirting graduated to a date, and then a one-night stand. Unfortunately for Dan, Ann was not comfortable with the new development, and decided to break it off. Sadly, things got a extremely weird at work and Dan turned into her enemy, frustrating her efforts at advancement any chance he got.

2. An Accident Could Be Intentional

A 23 year old professional musical theatre actress from Seattle began dating a fellow cast member. Things were going on well until she decided to end the relationship. Unknown to her, the guy did not take their break-up well and planned his revenge. Taking advantage of their working situation, he began targeting her during their rehearsals for an upcoming dance-intensive show. Since he was the biggest dancer in the group and she was the smallest, they were asked to lead a risqué dance routine. Regrettably, the guy used this opportunity to be vindictive, dropping her as many times as he could. Suffice to say the young actress suffered from many bruises during their bumpy rehearsals.

1. Double Loser

Natasha was enjoying a very cordial and fulfilling relationship with her boyfriend, until she began cheating on him with her manager at work. Consequently, she dumped the love of her life and secretly married the manager. Just as her life was seemingly getting better, her boss discovered the office affair, and reduced her hours from 20 per week to a mere 5 hours per week. Additionally, he made her life there miserable, to the point where she had to eventually quit. In the long run, Natasha lost her boyfriend, as well as a job she liked, simply because she chose to have an affair with a colleague.

Sources: Buzzfeed.com, Huffingtonpost.com