Love is in the air: why does winter spark office romances?

For us, at the HR Grapevine office, today seemed to herald the first truly wintery morning of the season. One of our journalists almost lost his fingers to the cold as he cycled in. Another is still being thawed out from the block of ice she slid into the office entombed within.

Yet, seasonal kvetching aside, winter - whilst bringing an array of timely jingles that some love and others detest - is apparently also the season when office romances are most likely to, well, heat-up.

Whilst you might assume that the boozy summer evenings in the pub, after a hard day of work, would be the breeding ground for colleague courtship; it’s darker evenings and chilly climes that result in intra-office canoodling.

The Independent published results from a recent study which found that you’re twice as likely to embark on an office fling during the winter months. Two thirds of workers who had an office romance said it started during this period.