Flirting men bored at work There is strong evidence against that notion that you can flirt your way to the top. The researchers then carried out a second survey to establish whether men who flirted at work were different from their peers in any way. Flirtier men had lower levels of emotional intelligence, they found, meaning the men were worse at understanding other people's emotions and controlling their own feelings. This could have meant they were less able to suppress flirtatious behaviour or judge whether their actions were inappropriate, Dr Banks suggested. Although it was unclear why flirty men had less job satisfaction, one explanation could be that their behaviour was down to boredom, he added. He said: "Flirting is not going to be the way to advance your career, and of course flirting when it is unwanted is not appropriate and you shouldn't do it. It is not going to help and could be harmful. Speaking at the British Psychological Society's annual conference in London, he added that while flirting seems romantic, people also do so in order to attract help and improve relationships.