Robin Ellert, 52, sat at her cubicle at the Army office where she worked when disaster struck.
The cable of her wired headphones got stuck on the handle of the door next to her desk, yanking them out of her phone and causing what she called a “very graphic sex scene” from an audiobook to play for anyone nearby to hear.
Ellert has been reading romance books for four decades — she told Business Insider she read her first “bodice ripper” when she was just a tween — and she listens to three to four audiobooks a week, so the contents of the chapter didn’t faze her.
“It’s just another story,” she told BI. “I can see how someone who hasn’t been exposed to that material in a graphic way would maybe find it problematic. But it doesn’t bother me.”
Of course, the timing could have been better because Ellert’s boss walked right behind her as the audio started blasting from her phone.
“The word horrified describes the look on his face,” Ellert said. “It was one of those things where we both knew it happened, and then we just acted like it didn’t.”
Ellert said her boss gently advised her to “rethink the material” she listens to while on the clock, but she never faced any real repercussions at work. She has no plans to change her reading habits either.
Ellert isn’t alone. Romance readers across the country are listening to smut while they’re at work — and their colleagues have no idea.
Cliterature in the workplace
Ellert told BI she brought her love of graphic romance books, which you might have seen referred to as smut, spicy books, or cliterature on BookTok, to the office in 2017 when she switched from a customer-facing job to a more desk-oriented role.
“If I was sitting in my office and mindlessly populating Excel spreadsheets or just doing data processing of some kind, I could sit and listen to a book while I was actively working, and there was no conflict,” Ellert said.
Another reader who works in corporate social responsibility and asked to remain anonymous for privacy reasons told BI she’s been listening to spicy audiobooks at work daily since she first started reading them in 2019. She said audiobooks have been beneficial to her as someone with ADHD.
“Audiobooks came into my life when I needed another thing to keep my mind occupied,” she said.
She has an office, so she can listen to her audiobooks from her phone directly without even needing to use headphones. She told BI that listening to spicy romance books sometimes makes her more productive.
“It’s a thing that I use as a reward tactic for myself to get things done that I don’t necessarily want to get done,” she said.
Likewise, a 27-year-old government lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her job, also uses romance books to motivate herself while on the clock. She told BI audiobooks became part of her work routine when she was reading “Fourth Wing” — which has spice, but would probably be considered tame for most smut fans — in 2023.
“I was reading it, and then I was like, ‘I can’t put this down,’” she said. “So I had Alexa read it to me in the car, and then I got to work, and I was like, ‘No, but I’m still not done. I need to keep listening.’”
Now, romance audiobooks, including some spicier reads, have become the lawyer’s media of choice when performing “tedious and repetitive” tasks like filling out paperwork.
“Honestly, I feel like I can stay seated and focus for longer if I’m listening to something,” she said. “I get less bored and antsy.”
Romance is everywhere
Work is just one of the places these readers are making smut the soundtrack of their lives.
“The gym, the grocery store, just going for a walk,” Ellert said. “Pretty much if you see me out in public and I’ve got earbuds in, I’m listening to something racy.”
But it’s not about the sex — or, at least, not all about the sex.
“The sex scenes that are in the types of books that I read may be very graphic, but they are in service to the story,” Ellert said. “They are not in there just to simulate the person who’s listening to them.”
Instead, the readers said they keep returning to romance because it’s comforting to know there will be some sort of happy ending amid the chaos of real life.
“I love a happily ever after. I love to know what I’m getting into,” the lawyer told BI. “I love that I know what’s going to happen if they’re checking into a hotel and there’s one bed. I love the predictability of it because I still swoon every time.”
It was likely only a matter of time until romance books infiltrated the workplace, given that sales for the genre have skyrocketed in the past few years.
Circana Bookscan found that romance sales jumped from 18 million in 2020 to 36 million in 2023, and Bloomsbury had its highest sales year ever from 2023 to 2024, thanks to romantasy author and reigning queen of faerie smut Sarah J. Maas. The corporate responsibility staffer BI spoke to said she recently mentioned being a fan of Maas’ “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series during an icebreaker exercise at work.
Likewise, the Audio Publishers Association’s annual survey found that audiobook sales have been increasing steadily for the past 11 years, and romance is among the most popular genres for listeners.
Is a sex scene worse than true crime?
All three of the readers BI spoke to said they started listening to spicy books at work partly because they knew their colleagues were also indulging in their favorite forms of media on the job.
“My supervisors watch TV at their desks while they’re working,” the lawyer told BI. “I figure it’s really not any different.”
“There are so many girls out there that are listening to murder podcasts,” the corporate responsibility staffer said. “It’s a different extreme, but some people might think that’s inappropriate.”
The smut also doesn’t impact anyone else, not only because the readers are listening privately but because they aren’t listening with the intent of getting aroused at work, readers said. They’re focused on the stories they’re listening to as a whole, which sex happens to be part of.
Each reader has their own boundaries when it comes to the books they choose for work. Ellert said she occasionally stops a story if the sexual content distracts her, and the other readers BI spoke to said they save their spiciest books for after work. For instance, the lawyer pointed to Ana Huang’s “Twisted” series, which sits firmly in the erotica section at The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn, as an example of a book she wouldn’t read at the office.
But the corporate responsibility staffer said she doesn’t think there is any issue with listening to explicit stories while you’re on the job.
“You’re at work all day, and if listening to a spicy romance audiobook is gonna make your life a little bit easier, go for it,” she said.
Dr. Erika Evans, a sexologist and relationship and sexuality therapist who has been practicing for 20 years, agreed.
Spicy books can be beneficial for individuals and couples
Evans champions people exploring their sexuality through erotic content, whether it be watching porn or reading romance books, both on their own and with a partner.
“I’m a major advocate for reading it together as a couple and as an individual,” she told BI. “It stimulates conversation and imagination, and sex is all about creativity.”
“So many couples get frustrated and come to therapy later on because they’re like, ‘We’re doing the same thing, and I’m so over it,’” she added. “And I will say, ‘Have you read a book together?’ Because maybe that’s the first step to spicing things up because it will help broaden perspective.”
Evans, who is writing a romance book with workbook questions to help the reader explore their sexuality called “The Secret Life of a Sex Therapist,” added that she thinks that reading erotic fiction is better for people than watching porn because it doesn’t put as much pressure on the viewer.
“The consumer doesn’t have to contend with unrealistic body standards of beauty or even unrealistic durations for how long sex should be,” she said. “The consumer becomes the director for the scene, and that provides an authenticity that watching erotica can never provide.”
When listening to spicy romances at the office, Evans said she only sees potential issues if the audio distracts you from your work.
“If you’re at work and you’re getting clearly and evidently aroused, that’s a problem,” she said, adding that erotic podcasts from platforms like Dipsea or Quinn might be more distracting than a full novel, as they’re designed specifically for that purpose.
“Your response isn’t even wrong,” Evans said. “It just may mean work is not the best place for you to do it.”
Overall, Evans hopes more people will embrace spicy books and use them to explore what they want out of their own sex lives.
And if you’re feeling embarrassed about listening to smut at work, the readers BI spoke to said to remind yourself you’re just one of millions of people enjoying the genre.
“There is probably someone in your office that’s doing it right now,” one said.
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