I dated a coworker and now we're married - here are 7 more office-romance stories that'll make you think twice

When I was 22, I dated a coworker for a year.

Tyler and I didn't meet on the job. We had been in a relationship for almost four years before we started working together (which, by the way, wasn't planned). But for about a year we sat three cubes apart from each other and kept our relationship under wraps.

It wasn't always easy. We were young and worried about our reputations. It wasn't against company policy to date a coworker, but I didn't know what people would think if they knew we were involved romantically - so, for those reasons, we chose to keep it a secret.

It was tricky at times. We arrived and left separately. We didn't acknowledge each other in the hallways. We didn't eat lunch together. We avoided our colleagues on social media. We worried about running into coworkers on weekends.

It was a bit exhausting, so I was somewhat relieved when Tyler got a new job elsewhere.

Office romances are generally not recommended, but they happen all the time, and when they do there are usually three possible outcomes. The relationship turns sour, and your reputation and career take a beating. It ends, but you're both mature and cordial and don't let the breakup affect your work. Or things work out.

Luckily, we fall into the last category. Tyler and I survived our year as coworkers and got married in October.

A new survey by CareerBuilder found that nearly 40% of employees admitted to having a romantic relationship with a coworker, and almost one-third of office relationships result in marriage. Meanwhile, about 5% of workers who have had a workplace romance say they have left a job because of an office relationship gone bad.

I recently asked my Business Insider colleagues about their own office romances. Here are the stories of love, heartache, and regret that seven of them shared: