Don’t dip your pen in company ink. I was told this 40 years ago I was told this and it’s advice I’ve heeded ignored then learnt the hard way.
When it goes tits up, and it usually does, they nearly always side with the woman
Had a few part-time jobs when I was younger and tried to make a go of one of them (not saying where as the young lady in question’s dad is on here!!). Moved to another office to do some management training and met a young lady (she was 17 and stunning) there who was the Saturday worker. Everyone was after her except me, didn’t really like the people there so just kept my head down and got my 6 month placement over and done with. On the last week I was there we had a party as we’d met bonus target, just a night out at the local pub. Once the food had been eaten most of the staff went on to a nightclub in town and it was just me and the Saturday girl left so I gave her a lift home. As we pulled up at her place she jumped on me and I didn’t resist (did I mention she was stunning 😉 ). Seeing as I was leaving that office I thought ‘what the hell’ and we started a relationship that lasted 6 months.
This was until she decided to cheat on me with the new trainee at her office. Things got a little messy personally and professionally (to say the least!) during the beak-up with people in her office taking her side and it lead to my path into higher management being blocked by one of her colleagues a year later as it meant working with her and the new trainee again. No other options for me to explore and once I’d had a path blocked I was overlooked for everything. Someone started spreading seriously nasty rumours about me shortly after (later found out it was her new partner, the one she’d cheated on me with) so I left the company and moved on to a job I absolutely hated.
Saw her about 6 years later and she tried to be all nice and pally with me, as if nothing had happened. She’d gone from the person I liked the most to the one I hated the most.
I’ve never ‘dipped in the company ink’ since despite a few opportunities.