THE 48 LAWS OF LOVE: “Law Number 4 – Work!” By: Lady Lynxx

Premise – ‘Work, rest and above all play!!’

Here were are again! The fourth law is about work! It takes up most of our lives and it makes us our daily bread. In the best cases, going to work is doing something you love and in the worst cases, you’re watching the clock until the day is over.

But why is work important in the realm of falling in love, I hear you ask? Well it is very important! Your devotion to your work could be the difference between you being married to it and being married to an actual person. To all the high flyers out there that feel short changed in the love stakes; you need to have a healthy work/life balance. Staying at work until late may advance your career, but it will do nothing for your love live (unless of course, the object of your affection happens to be at work, or worse your boss – but we’ll discuss that later).

Ask yourself the following questions if you fear that your job may have a negative impact on your love life: Does your work take over your life? Are you making time for the one you love? Would you blow off a work function to be with the one you love?

If work is more important than anything in your life then you need to re-think why on earth you are reading this. Work/life must be balanced in order for love to be able to stand a chance of flourishing. I can’t tell you how many women that I know (much older than I am) that are still waiting for Mr Right to come along, yet stay in the office way longer than I could ever dream of doing. Sorry to be blunt, but in many cases, especially for the female folk, you can’t have your cake and eat it. You can’t live your life tied to your desk and expect men to come chasing you.

My advice to counteract this, (and I need to take my own advice in this case!); go out with your non-work friends whenever you can, have hobbies, join clubs, go to a gym regularly, go by yourself to a nice restaurant, go to almost every event that you’re invited to or even make a habit of hitting the supermarket early evening on a Friday. The case in point is just get out sometimes!

Another wonderful way of beating stress and giving yourself the opportunity to meet new people is to take short break city with a few of your friends; take a long weekend with some of those paid vacation days that you’ve probably racked up. You’re going to need to cast your net far and wide if you’re at all serious about finding love.

For those that are already attached to a significant other; don’t use your job as an excuse to neglect your boo boo. And if, for some awful reason, you’d rather be at work than at home and thus make excuses to do overtime, then you need to re-think your relationship. It’s not healthy and will probably end up in one or both of you having an affair; think about it though. We are human beings and we need affection; in many cases, we crave adulation. Basically, if your job is your excuse to give less attention to your lover, just remember that there is always gonna be someone else out there ready to snatch their heart away from you.

So you ask; what do I do if I can’t help my crazy work schedule? Here are a few things that you can do to show your significant other that you’re still thinking about them in spite of your workload; even a small thing like a text, call or email to your love one at lunchtime or on the way back from work will let them know that you’re thinking of them.

The little, yet often things go a long way in the realm of love. Remembering birthdays and special occasions, (anniversaries guys!) can also go a long way and are quite thoughtful even if you can’t afford a present. Make sure that you put a reminder of these on your Outlook calendar or you could even, (if you got it like that,) ask your Secretary/ personal assistant to do so at the beginning of each year. It’s their job to remind you and that way you’ll never be accused of forgetting!

Another topic of discussion re the work area, is you actual line of work. Some occupations can make it virtually impossible to hold down a decent relationship; yes as you may have guessed, strippers, prostitutes, porn stars, pimps and those that deal in illegal substances, will probably have a hard time finding love. Let’s face it, it’s going to take someone with a very big heart and liberal outlook to accept what you do for a living and to be honest such people are few and far between.

The same can be said of bodyguards, those that work at sea or people that constantly need to travel as part of their job. It’s a tough field out there and if you happen to have one of those impossible occupations, you’ll need to try harder to keep a relationship going than most.

Okay, last but not least, we will discuss the error of love at work or with a work colleague in this chapter as well. In my personal opinion, I would never advise getting it on with someone you work in the same building with. There are just too many opportunities for things to get messy in the event of a break up, not to mention being the hot topic the dreaded office rumor mill. Wherever possible, I’d say to steer clear of work hook-ups or filings.

On the other hand, you may get lucky and genuinely find the love of your life at work; here’s a tip that the successful couples that I know of tried. Once you’re both sure that it is serious, one of you has to leave the company and get another job. That way, your personal life need not filter into the work realm and it eliminates the temptation of squeezing in a quickie in the janitor’s closet (even though the rush may be exhilarating) at the risk of getting caught by security. Just be sure that you are both committed at your relationship before doing anything rash; the last thing that you need is to lose your job for the sake of five minutes of passion! I’m just sayin’!