'The Office,' Letterman Spotlight Workplace Romance

Oct. 9, 2009 — -- The on-again, off-again workplace romance involving an office "funny" man finally blossoms into marriage. The man in question eventually walks down the aisle with his long-time love, but only after he has had at least one other sexual affair with a co-worker.

If that relationship history sounds a little like David Letterman's, it's not. It's the story of fictional paper salesman Jim Halpert (potrayed by John Krasinski) on NBC's "The Office" who married the office secretary, Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), on the popular sitcom's Thursday night episode. Beesly, by the way, also had at least one other sexual relationship on the job, with a warehouse worker. And don't forget Dunder Mifflin manager, Michael Scott (Steve Carell), who had a sexual relationship with his boss and a subsequent fling with a subordinate.

With the Letterman scandal and "The Office" wedding buzz both in the news, it seems everyone's dissecting workplace relationships these days.

"People are going to date and have affairs in the workplace. Most employers recognize that they can't stop it," said Ashley Brightwell, a partner at the Atlanta-based law firm Alston and Bird, and a specialist in workplace sexual harassment claims. "But it really becomes problematic from an employer's perspective when the two people involved are a subordinate and her superior."

And a boss sleeping with a staffer seems to be what was going on over at "The Late Show with David Letterman."

The late-night comic admitted to having "had sex with women who worked on the show." He did not make it clear how many women or when he had sex with them. (Although an official at Letterman's World Wide Pants production company told ABC News the affairs ended after his March 2009 marriage to Regina Lasko).