Work. Oh, work, the good old nine to five. So much of our lives happen in our five by five-foot cubicle. You experience the unbelievable highs of nailing that presentation or closing that account. You also face the lows, like when the report you've been working on for weeks somehow vanishes in seconds and of course, it’s due in an hour. You celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, even the holidays at work. And it’s also where so many people get struck by Cupid’s arrow.
According to a survey conducted by Vault, 57 percent of respondents have had some kind of office romance ranging from a hook-up to a long-term relationship and even marriage – which, let’s face it, makes sense. You spend more than 40 hours a week at work. But when it comes to meeting the person who will stand by you in the long run, do you really want to meet them over a cup of burnt coffee and stale donuts that have been sitting out too long in the break room?
Though flings and relationships stemming from within the office environment are, well, convenient, they’re somewhat akin to settling, harsh as that may sound. That’s not to say that workplace romances can’t work, but there’s so many other places to discover, people to meet and possibilities to explore by expanding horizons.
Sometimes, expanding your horizons means putting yourself out there, in a way that takes you out of your comfort zone. For a lot of people looking to meet a mate, that translates to dating apps and online dating. While that’s a good first step, that’s a problem too. You end up swiping right and messaging someone who looks good on paper (and with the ever-present flower crown filter enabled), but to what end? To be ghosted two weeks later (also while at work)?
The benefit of meeting at work is that you and your potential date have something in common. You know so many of the same people, you share a passion for the same industry, you bitch about that terrible coffee in the break room, but are those similarities enough to help you build a life together?
What about you if you met someone at a Tiffany Haddish stand-up performance at the Laugh Factory? Or at a Grateful Dead concert? Or at a vegetarian street food festival one Sunday? That sounds better, right? That way, at least you know you share core fundamentals, such as a similar sense of humor, taste in music or love of food to build a future upon. That was the reason I created the Doppler Social App. It allows people to connect based upon shared interests. Instead of judging a person’s highly filtered dating profile picture, you evaluate something else through Doppler, that immeasurable spark that only happens IRL, or in real life.
