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Maybe it's the pumping pistons. Or the whistling steam pipes. Or the sheer monotony.

Factory workers are the staff most likely to have sex on the job, with 19 per cent admitting they did the dirty while on shift, according to a survey of 1,434 people released this week by Reabur, a British human resources consultancy.

Factory staff also spent the most amount of time fantasizing on the job: 31 per cent confessed they spend up to two hours of the work day thinking about naughty bits. (No word on whether any of these thoughts occurred while wearing beard guards.)

Office employees took second place, with 16 per cent confessing to a workplace shag. Some 26 per cent of these cubicle slaves also admitted they whiled away two hours daily on triple-X daydreams.

Schools and kitchens were also scenes of the crime: 10 per cent of the teachers polled acknowledged having dalliances on the job, as did 9 per cent of the chefs surveyed.

The results of the poll, conducted online, might have you shooting suspicious glances at your colleagues.

It could also disprove several stereotypes: About half of those polled falsely assumed that airline cabin crews were the most licentious on the job. Nurses brought up the rear, but factory workers were a long shot.

"I think there's that stereotype that cabin crew and nurses especially are going to be frisky but actually, those people are probably too busy to be getting up to those kinds of things," said Kirsty Burgess, a managing director at Reabur.

And factory workers?

"If somebody is doing the same thing day in and day out, hour after hour, their minds might wander," Ms. Burgess said.

The company conducted the poll after getting several calls from bosses who'd caught employees in flagrante delicto.

"I was surprised at how much it actually goes on. It appears that quite a few different types of workers are getting up to mischief," she said.

On the other hand, office romances are to be expected: "You spend more time at work than you do at home quite a lot of the time and relationships tend to happen."



Indeed, the economic downturn might be sparking romances, not deterring them, says Vicki Lynn, vice-president of research and consulting at Vault.com, a New York-based career information company.



Nearly 70 per cent of the 1,057 respondents polled in Vault's 2010 Office Romance Survey said the economy hadn't affected their willingness to take romantic risks at work.



"Particularly now, when people are spending 10- and 12-hour days at work, where else are you going to meet people? You're side by side with them all day long," said Ms. Lynn, adding, "People are seeking comfort and the camaraderie is more important than ever."



Nearly 60 per cent of the respondents said they had enjoyed a workplace affair, with 32 per cent revealing they'd had sex on company property.



"That is the sheer thrill of getting caught. It's risk taking and boasting rights: 'I did it at the office.' That has nothing to do with romance or love. That's a power trip," Ms. Lynn said.



Can office nookie ever be a good thing?

Ms. Lynn said it can, noting that 20 per cent of the office-erotic employees Vault polled said their liaisons led to marriage.



"Maybe I'm a bit of a romantic, but love finds you - you don't find it. … Most people who said they'd had some kind of romance said nothing really deters them, and that they'd do it again."



The thrill of photocopying your tushes aside, it's a different story if you get found out, Ms. Burgess said.



Even with an otherwise impeccable reputation, "you will always be remembered as the person who got caught with their trousers down."

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