MILLIONS watched anxiously as the hit sitcom The Office came to an end.

The question on everyone’s lips was will Tim and Dawn finally mate after years of working together.

The reason this theme resonated with so many people is that almost everyone has had an office romance ... to some degree.

Even if nothing has actually happened most workers can think of a foxy colleague whose jiggling alone made their daily drudgery a little more bearable.

I have had half a dozen work romances which have ranged from a drunken kiss to a full blown relationship.

Mostly these have been disasters.

At this point out of respect for my co-workers I feel I must clarify that I have never left so much as a blemish on the character of any of Daily Echo lovelies I am continually surrounded by.

The vast majority of these experiences occurred before I entered journalism and had perilously idle hours on my hands which needed filling.

Like all right thinking people I have always been hesitant of getting involved in office romances but have still, on occasion, accidentally slept with work hotties.

Drunken romantic treats are not too disastrous as the worst you can expect is a few hours of feeling a bit uncomfortable the following day.

Relationships are much harder to wriggle out of.

I briefly dated a foxy blonde girl from the office I used to work at who seemed intelligent, self-assured and laid back.

However, these attractive qualities evaporated as soon as we got together and I got to see her girlfriend persona.

Within a week she stopped talking to me, it eventually turned out I had upset her by speaking to a girl she didn’t like two days earlier.

When I suggested that maybe we should discuss this later in private she clenched her teeth and said in a shrill, barely controlled, voice: "Don’t talk to me like I’m a mental person."

As we got to know each other I found myself peeling back layer after layer of disturbing crazy.

Thankfully she left shortly afterwards and I cursed my stupidity.

I had already been unfortunate enough to work with couples and I’d seen what could happen if you dipped your wick in the company ink.

In one office I sat between a middle-aged husband and wife who had met at work 40 years earlier and now hated each other more than anything else in the world.

Shuddering when their partner spoke and squabbling throughout the day they were a joy to be around as you can imagine.

I’m sure things were romantic early on but now their mutual aim in life was to make the other person feel as bad they did.

Later, in the same office, a couple of 20-somethings got together.

Now I wouldn’t be horrified if an office couple gave each other a kiss on the cheek in the morning when nobody was looking but I do object to seeing a pair of love birds grinding away in full view and making occasional little grunty noises.

I don’t know whether they were too ignorant to realise their behaviour was unacceptable and were so arrogant they didn’t care but eventually their was a shake-up and he was moved to a different office.

This did mean we had to endure more than a month of his other half going around with a face like a dying swan.

However, this was certainly preferable to seeing them putting their hands inside each others shirts, overhearing whispered baby talk and watching them walking down the corridor holding little fingers.

Despite my experiences and misgivings I must admit I have now seen two office romances flourish.

A Daily Echo sports reporter has melted the icy heart of my lady adviser and they don’t seem to hate each other at all.

Also friends from the last paper I worked on have recently got engaged so I’m guessing they still get on well too.