Question: What's the absolutely best reason to work by yourself?

Answer: You don't have to worry about office romances.

Or to be brutally honest about it, you don't have to worry about the other person in your tawdry workplace affair rejecting you, or worse, complaining about you to human resources. If the only person you have to sexually harass is you, chances are you will not be offended, unless you know yourself really well. Then you can object about being propositioned by someone as unworthy of your affections as you.

For the rest of the working world, it's not so simple. Just because you and the object of your affection work side by side 14 hours a day doesn't mean you have carte blanche to launch an affair. And if you doubt it, ask Blanche. She's busy reporting your sorry self to her HR representative, her lawyer, your spouse and the Drudge Report.

The dangers of an office romance were recently revealed to the host of CBS's Late Night, David Letterman. Apparently, Dave has been turning his monologue into a dialogue by meeting with comely young interns in a secret love nest in the Ed Sullivan Theater. Given Letterman's fame and fortune, it's not surprising that he could be blackmailed. What is shocking is that no one turned him in to HR.

Clearly, Letterman's organization, Worldwide Pants, did not have the benefit of Dale Carnegie Training. If they did, the boss's pants, worldwide or local, surely would have stayed on. According to a timely e-mail I received from the Carnegie crew, when it comes to sharing workplace romance etiquette, the CEO and president of the company, Peter Handal, is definitely hot to trot.

"Avoid dating someone in a higher or lower position" is one of Handal's homilies, a suggestion you may find extremely limiting. After all, who in your company is in a lower position than you?

As far as dating above you, Handal suggests this could "dramatically affect your salary or movement within your company." Probably for the better, I say, at least, until you and your upper-echelon honey bunny have a fight and you find yourself offered a great growth opportunity -- opening up the company's new office in Antarctica. Continued...