Hybrid work has not killed office novels – but you have to try it harder now

Falling in love at work has changed.

Those who study relationships have long been confident on the factors that people fall in love with colleagues. It is largely because of proximity, but also because working towards a common goal is a liaison experience.

Now, in companies where hybrid work is common, teammates meet more sporadically. They certainly do not accumulate almost 1,700 hours a year or more in the office together as they did.

Channa Bromley, a relationship of relationships specializing in helping very efficient men and women, told Bi the transition to distance and hybrid work “has completely changed” the way the office novels take place.

“The pandemic did not kill romance in the workplace – it simply changed the battlefield,” said Bromley to Bi. If anything, the disturbance of remote work and hybrid has “only rendered more intentional labor relations,” she said.

Proximity has raised familiarity in a traditional office setting, but now, without occasional cats or the slow burn of camaraderie in person, work connections require deliberate efforts, Bromley said: “People are not content to fall into relations because they spend eight hours a day together.”

Made serendipity

Bromley said the biggest change was that office relations no longer occurred by accident. Now they require a strategy, people who have to “make serendipity”.

Before the pandemic, a marketing director who was one of Bromley’s customers fell for a colleague “on months of occasional interactions”.

“There was no time he clicked,” she said. “It was the accumulation of small and familiar. As they gathered, there was already an unshakable base.”

In 2025, the dynamics of finding love is different. Another customers of Bromley, an engineer, barely knew a woman from his team beyond the Slack messages and the occasional zoom call, but he knew he was attracted to her.

Bromley said that the relationship was then “built with intention”, his client finding ways to see women beyond work tasks, such as Slack Slack messages, virtual coworking sessions and “linger on video calls”.

“When they finally met in person, it was not a question of discovering the attraction,” said Bromley. “It was a question of testing whether the connection they have established in controlled digital spaces could survive in the real world.”

A double -edged sword

Jenn Gunsaullus, sociologist, expert in relation and business lecturer, told Bi that remote work is a double -edged sword with regard to office relations. On the one hand, there are less risks once a relationship develops, with fewer opportunities for examination, fewer office gossip and “no annoying runs if things do not work”.

“But on the other hand, it is also more difficult to read chemistry in real time”, which can prevent relations from training in the first place, said Gunsaulllus.

“You cannot resume body language, shared visual contact or this natural energy which can build when two people are with each other every day.”

Furtive fashion

The fundamental attraction rules have not changed. Shared objectives, high pressure environments and teamwork psychology still create links.

Angelika Koch, an expert in relation and in breach of the Taimi meeting application, told Bi that during the pandemic, people got used to communicating more via their phones and less in person.

“This distance allows more flexibility with regard to conversations,” she said. “And the subtle flirts through the texts are more likely to start with those who feel this spark.”

Lucy Finter, director and social media manager at Press Box Pr, met her boyfriend at work 18 months ago, when they were both in the office.

At the start of their relationship, Finter said that she was enthusiastic about the three days they were at the office together, which was going to make “mini-dates” during the day between their official functions.

Bromley said people must be more daring now to continue an office relationship. They must resume the signals when they meet in person and rely on messages and emails in the meantime.

“The intensity has not disappeared,” she added. “He just became underground, where it simmer in private messages and very dark emojis.”

The romance in the workplace is not dead, Bromley added: “It just works in stealth mode.”