This Is What It Really Looks Like When You Flirt at Work

By Mark Shrayber | February 6, 2015 | 4:12am

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Work crushes: Everyone has them, but not everyone knows how to flirt in a way that doesn’t suggests you won’t show up at your intended cube mate’s house with a boom box in one hand and a serrated knife in the other. That’s why Fast Company put together an educational video to show you what you’re really doing when you try to make casual small talk with the object of your affection.

As someone who is terrible at flirting, this video was both embarrassing and hilarious. I actually lost it towards the end when the hand signals showed up (because I might have done something just like that at one point) and had to be told to stop laugh-crying so loudly. It really brought me back to my own experiences flirting while on the job (when I worked at the video store) which reminded me that I probably drove away about half of our customer base just by trying to make my love life happen, which means I was also probably responsible for the death of at least one video rental establishment. I am sorry, former place of employment; I wish I’d had this video to tell me what I looked like before I blurted out “you’re so hot,” when surprised by the new beat cop assigned to our block. (To be fair, I was trying to say “it’s hot out” and he had surprised me because I was busy hiding under the counter playing video games instead of doing my work when he came in.) (That’s not really an excuse, though, is it?)