This time of year, love is in the air. But it’s best to keep it out of the workplace. Anyone who’s had an office romance go sour will probably tell you the same.
To some single employees, work – where we spend half or more of our waking hours during the week – may seem like a great place to find a potential mate. However, human resources frowns on intra-office relationships as a rule. From the perspective both of management and the romantically involved pair, when things are good, they are very good. And we’re talking good as in improved morale, better communication and higher productivity.
But there’s a “but” there. The flip side involves exactly the opposite. The majority of co-worker couples don’t fare as well as The Office’s Jim and Pam did. A break up can not only result in broken hearts, but also lead to diminished performance at work and even a lawsuit, with one party claiming the relationship wasn’t consensual. To avoid these risks, many employers have instated policies on office romances in recent years, falling somewhere between forbidding romantic relationships between co-workers and requiring the couple notify HR of their relationship.
A recent SHRM survey revealed:
- The number of companies requiring couples to report their relationship has doubled since 2005.
- A majority of relationships (53 percent) happen between employees in different departments.
- Almost one-third (32 percent) of flings are between staff of the same rank.
- As much as 16 percent of romances could be called affairs, with at least one participant having a spouse or significant other.
- Only 8 percent were reported to have occurred between a supervisor and direct subordinate or between employees of significantly different rank.
In discouraging pairings among associates, the powers that be obviously aren’t driven by a desire to pooh-pooh passion, but prevent preferential treatment and maintain professionalism at the office. It’s not all rocky roads to romance in the workplace, though; findings from the SHRM study indicated that more than half of HR professionals had seen an office romance lead to marriage or a long-term relationship.
Published by Conselium Executive Search, the global leader in compliance search.
