Maintaining a good working relationship is the key objective.

This means that you mustn’t give this guy any misleading signals that would make him think that you are interested in him too.

That is what he is looking for.

As a coworker who is interested in you, he is looking for any signals from you to indicate to him that you are also interested in him.

Refrain from giving him any of these.

That being said, this is where so many female coworkers go wrong.

To be polite, she responds to the guy when he cracks lousy jokes or flirts with her.

Not that she found the joke all that funny, but she laughs so as not to have an awkward situation.

Same thing applies to when he makes flirtatious comments.

She is compelled to either return the compliment or say thank you.

When you keep trying to be agreeable with a guy who is clearly looking for any signs from you that implies you are interested in him, you are giving him the wrong impression.

Any laughter at his lousy jokes or response to his flirtatious comments makes him think that you are interested.

He takes this as a good sign and keeps up this behavior, eventually escalating it to a point where you might feel restless.

The key to maintaining a good working relationship with this male coworker is to refrain from encouraging him.

Do not laugh at his lousy jokes nor respond to his flirtatious comments.

Instead, quickly move on to a topic related to work.

To add to this, do everything in your power to evade one on one situations with him.

When you are one on one with him, with no other coworkers in sight or within earshot, he is further emboldened to make romantic overtures towards you.

Make it imperative that whenever you are about to head off some place alone, you bring someone along with you.

A coworker friend for example.

Whether you are headed to the break room or a storage closet to get office supplies, don’t do it alone.

The less time you spend alone, the less opportunities you give him to bump into you.

He is looking for that.

He is looking for any and every window to talk to you on a one on one basis.

Minimizing these windows, keeps him from repeatedly cornering you alone.

If you have work spaces that are close to each other, shun making eye contact with him.

He is hoping for you to look in his direction.

Anytime you do this without a justifiable reason for doing so, he instantly takes that as a sign that you are interested in him.

This encourages him even more and you don’t want this.

Prevent eye contact with him unless you are addressing him in relation to a work-related task.

As long as you maintain these disciplines over a sustained period of time, he will lose any instinct to continue making romantic overtures at you and you still get to maintain a good working relationship with him.