Am I overthinking this situation with a picture of my crush?

[quatrofaucet]

I have a crush on one of my co-workers, but I have a no dating co-workers rule for many reasons. I've also heard that this girl has her own qualms about dating co-workers, which would mean that we're both at an impasse as far as dating goes. I won't ask her out while we're still co-workers, but I've heard some potential rumblings about her maybe leaving this job soon.

I know that she graduated college and got her degree at the start of the Summer and I've also overheard her saying something about "being accepted" somewhere, but I couldn't make out where. Since Summer's over and Fall is here, I've kind of had my hopes up that she's going to be leaving this job soon and utilizing her degree or going to school or something like that, meaning that I would finally ask her out. And based off of how she acts around me, I'm pretty confident that she likes me. It also doesn't hurt that I know that she's single.

But today at work, I noticed something that may change the dynamic. She's actually a trainer at work and all of the store's trainers have their pictures posted on a bulletin board in our front office section. For the past few months, she's had a picture of her that's admittedly not very flattering. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk or anything, but it's simply not a good picture of her. And today I saw that she had a brand new, clearly more recent picture of her put up on the board. That was worrying to me since I view it as a potential sign that she's going to be staying here long term. If she was leaving soon, then it really wouldn't matter what picture of her is up. There'd be no point in updating it with a brand new one. But the fact that management went out of their way to put up a new picture of her must mean that she's staying at this job and they're wanting something better for an employee who's clearly going to be staying at this job. That's my take from it at least.

I have a history of overthinking little things and I'm wondering if this is one of those situations. I just really like this girl and I want to shoot my shot, but I also don't want to risk the drama of a romance in the workplace. This picture situation could potentially make or break the whole dilemma and I'm not sure what to make of it. What are your thoughts?

[glows]

You’re probably onto something and I’d think similarly but why not let things unfold and let it be for now? Are you not on comfortable speaking terms? Why can’t you ask her what her plans are?

[quatrofaucet]

10 minutes ago, glows said:

You’re probably onto something and I’d think similarly but why not let things unfold and let it be for now? Are you not on comfortable speaking terms? Why can’t you ask her what her plans are?

We don't get a lot of chances for full conversation. We work different departments and our managers are very micromanaging in terms of casual conversation in the workplace.

We get some brief moments together. We'll make eye contact in passing and she'll occasionally ask me to help her out with some type of project she's working on, but that's just about it.

[glows]

You’re still running into each other though. I’d just pop the question “Hey! I heard you were accepted somewhere - congrats! I wasn’t sure where though. Are you going to stay on working here?” 10 seconds or less.

[d0nnivain]

She may have plans that were not communicated to management.  

If you intend to honor your own smart rule about not dating at work, just keep doing what you are doing.  Perhaps you can look for another job? 

[JTSW]

I'm echoing glows comment.

If you want to know what her plans are then you have to ask her.

We can't answer that question for you.

 

[ShyViolet]

Either she is leaving the job, or she is staying a while.  We can't speculate which one it is based on the fact that she put up a new picture.

I think you are overthinking this quite a bit.  If she ends up leaving then just ask her out.  Cross that bridge when you come to it.