Back in the day people met their future spouses and many a partner at work. Flirting on the factory floor, lingering by the photocopier and coupling up after car sharing was commonplace. In large organisations, stepping into work was like mingling in a giant dating site, potential at every turn.

Romances just happened and no one cared. Couples were regularly caught canoodling in the stationery cupboard or returning from lunch flushed and flustered. It was how it was.

After the initial flurry of workplace tittle-tattle when news broke about a budding relationship, no one batted an eye lid at colleagues dating, developing to marriages, with collections for wedding presents going around as another pair tied the knot. Even split ups went on in a work environment and productivity didn’t suffer. I’d love to see the statistics of the number of romantic relationships, and children, started in the Norwich Union – now Aviva – and the number of multi-generational families who have worked there.

If the company had taken the tack that oil and gas BP did last week, banning inter-staff relationships, the marriage and birthrate in Norwich would have plummeted over the decades. What would the landscape look like now? It was one of the region’s biggest employers, and also its unofficial marriage agencies. Working 40 hours a week with people, relationships are bound to spark and develop.

Norwich Union back in the day – modern day Aviva might still be – was a hive of romance. So wh.