Advice about office romances

Valentine's Day is coming up and the social pressure to express your love by buying ill-fitting joke lingerie or booking an overpriced restaurant table is growing every day. But things could be worse: your love bunny might be not your old university boyfriend or the hot spinning instructor you met at the gym but the oddly hairy guy from accounts.

Please note, however, that getting him to do a Frank Lampard with his chest won't help - it's your shared employer, not his hirsutism, that's at issue here. Office love is a minefield that goes well beyond aesthetic concerns, a press release from Acas (the conciliation and arbitration organisation) helpfully reminds us. Here's its advice:

1. Leave your love life at home. "No one wants to witness a lovers' tiff at work," Acas tells us. Actually I think this isn't quite true; watching your boss and her toyboy snipe about who is the most selfish in bed can be quite entertaining. Probably best to leave your sex life at home, however, though if you don't you can look at this post for some ideas about office shenanigans.

2. It's ok to be upfront about your new squeeze. It's fine to tell colleagues about your romance but it's probably best to make sure that your beloved knows that you're taking things public first. This is particularly important if the object of your affection doesn't actually know that you consider him your boyfriend.

3. Skip the pillow talk. This is not an excuse to avoid using the l-word or otherwise discussing your feelings. It just means that you both need to respect professional confidentialities, particularly if one of you is in charge of the other.

4. Prepare for the worst. You're in love, it's for real, nothing will ever tear us apart etc...at least not until it does. "If things go sour, then anticipate how it should be managed, especially if you are both part of a small team or company," Acas says. Good solid advice that. If, however, a cool sensible head doesn't solve the problem, consider moving to Australia.

Picture credit: this shot of Valentine's Day chocolate treats comes from thorntons.co.uk