Affairs in the Workplace.(Interview)

Local psychologist's research illustrates the reality of extramarital affairs

Seems as though working women are doing more than climbing the corporate ladder.

Experts say that there's lots of evidence that more women are having affairs than ever before.

"As women have revolutionized their role in culture, women have much more temptation, much more exposure," said Dr. Stephen Levine, professor of psychiatry at Case Western University School of Medicine in Cleveland. Levine, who has been in practice for about 30 years, wrote "Sexuality in Midlife," published in 1998 by Kleuwer Academic.

Turns out that the demands of a working family combined with a dull marriage can be lethal, he said.

"Women have affairs in the workplace often if they are working well with someone, if they are really clicking with someone in the workplace," he said. "As they develop that functional intimacy of working well with whatever task they might share, it tends to then lead to a revelation about their own lives and friendship, and that is very erotic. Intamacy is a very erotic thing."

South Florida psychologist Debbie Layton-Tholl was so intrigued by the idea of uncovering the mysteries behind extramarital affairs that she spent four years talking online with people she never met about their liaisons. Each told her intimate details about their unspeakable secrets.

Layton-Tholl, 41, began her research on affairs for a doctorate thesis, but it soon became like a second career for the married Delray Beach mom of two.

The findings

Layton-Tholl stopped taking questionnaires last year. Today, she has about 5,400 responses.

There's no doubt, she says, that women are having more affairs than they ever have, and a lot of that has to do with the workplace.

"You have women in the workplace at much greater numbers," she said. "We spend more time in the workplace. I think we're slightly more than half of the workforce.

"That also puts us in a situation that men have always been in: There's more power, more …