A third of UK workers exchange flirty emails despite being in relationships, according to Reed, the UK’s largest recruiter.

The research found that 54% of the 2000 workers polled owned up to having a secret crush on one of their work colleagues. One in three admitted they had exchanged suggestive emails and texts with someone at work, even though they were in a relationship with someone else and 38% of people have had an office romance.

It found that 71% of all respondents stated that they wouldn’t mind if their colleagues were having an affair in the office, with 89% saying that it was none of their business. Just 8% of workers said they would confront their colleagues if they discovered they were having an affair.

It also seems that banning office romances isn’t high on the list of priorities for most UK companies – 81% of companies have no formal policy in place to deal with office relationships.

The research found that 45% of respondents said work is the best place to meet a life partner, 10% said they had ended up living with someone they had met at work and 7% had even married a work colleague.

Lewis Woodward, head of network marketing at Reed, says: "It is surprising that people seem so totally unphased by office romances taking place around them, even though they are reluctant to own up to their own office flings. On a more serious note, with one in five workers claiming their employers did have policies around office relationships, anyone thinking about getting involved with someone in the office would be wise to check their employee manual to determine what policies actually exist. It is also worth thinking long and hard about the consequences if things go wrong."

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