Professionals Do It on Desks

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Normally, people in a professional line of work must keep their romantic inclinations in check at the office. However, sometimes, in the heat of the moment, Unresolved Sexual Tension simply must be resolved. They're at the office, so might as well just do it on the desk. This may or may not involve Necktie Leash kissing or the wanton shuffling of papers onto the floor to make way for some "pencil pushing". Can be used to show the otherwise-professional letting their hair down, or as an insult to the boss or someone else in a position of authority.

A subtrope of Making Love in All the Wrong Places.

No real life examples, please; this is All The Tropes, not Tropes After Dark.

Examples of Professionals Do It on Desks include:


Literature

  • Deception Point: Senator Sexton and his assistant, Gabrielle, have a desktop tryst in his office, photos of which are later used as blackmail.

Live-Action TV

  • In Better Off Ted, a flashback/security footage of Ted's hookup with Veronica shows them having sex on top of a work desk. Veronica accidentally deleted an important e-mail with her foot during the act.
  • Conviction: ADA's Alex Cabot and Jim Steele engage in after-hours sex on top of Jim's work desk.
  • In the first episode of Crownies, Ben and Julie sneak into the office after the Christmas party to have sex on Ben's boss's desk.
  • On Friends
    • When Phoebe dates David the Scientist Guy...

Phoebe: Were you planning on kissing me ever?
David: Uh, that's definitely a, uh, valid question. And, uh, the answer would be (Writes YES on the board) yes. Yes I was. But, see, I wanted it to be this phenomenal kiss that happened at this phenomenal moment, because, well, 'cause it's you.
Phoebe: Sure.
David: Right. But, see, the longer I waited, the more phenomenal the kiss had to be, and now we've reached a place where it's just gotta be one of those things where I just like... sweep everything off the table and throw you down on it. And, uh, I'm not really a, uh, sweeping sorta fella.

    • And when Rachel was dating her assistant Tag, she dramatically sweeps all the stuff off her desk:

Tag: Oh my God. Are you serious?
Rachel: No, I just always wanted to do that. Can you help me pick this stuff up?

  • Herman's Head: Herman catches Heddy in a vulnerable moment, and they do this on their boss's desk. The boss figures it out, and isn't happy.
  • Seinfeld: George lost his job after having sex with one of the cleaning women on his desk. He said he didn't know that wasn't allowed.

Mr. Lippman: It has come to my attention that you and the cleaning woman have engaged in sexual intercourse on the desk in your office. Is that correct?
George: Who said that?
Mr. Lippman: She did.
George: Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I tell ya, I've gotta plead ignorance on this, because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon...'cause I've worked in a lot of offices and people do that all the time.

  • In the Zen episode "Ratking". Zen and his lover violate the new boss's rules and make love on the boss's desk. There's a laugh when the desk falls down while the boss is using it. Later, as the boss is leaving (and Zen is preparing to temporarily take the job), Zen tells him what they did.
  • Lampshaded in an episode of General Hospital as a couple begins to make out in his office. The man turns and sweeps everything off of his desk.

Woman (confused): We have a perfectly good couch right here. (gestures)
Man: I know. I've just always wanted to do that.

  • Angel. When Angel becomes human in "I Will Remember You" he and Buffy agree they should take their relationship slow. One accidental moment of body contact later and they're shoving the cutlery off the kitchen table to have passionate sex.
    • Played straight in a Grand Theft Me episode when someone takes over Angel's body and starts hitting on evil lawyer Lilah Morgan; it doesn't take long for the two of them to start making out on the bosses' desk at Angel Investigations.

Wesley: "I do not believe it. On my desk?"
Gunn: "Well, it did used to be his. Maybe he was just kinda...reclaiming it."

  • On the show Smallville, Lois Lane had an affair with her boss at the Daily Planet. Her cousin Chloë Sullivan referenced this trope when she urged Lois to break off the affair, telling her that she wanted people to think she had earned a promotion "at her desk, not on it."
  • Happens between Charlene Cockburn (Kristin Chenoweth) and her husband in the pilot of GCB.
  • Happens with Daisy and Sweets in Bones.

Sweets: We have to stop having sex on my desk.

Video Games

Western Animation

  • A subversion in Rocko's Modern Life: Ed is working, and Bev comes to see him at work. He rudely dismisses the knock on the door, but then when Bev comes in anyway, and he realizes who she is, he knocks everything off the top of his desk excitedly. They don't do anything as perhaps planned because Bev now has a nose, and is put off by Ed's B.O.
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