Office Romance and Valentine's Day
My office has had several “disasters’ because of people breaking the office dating rules. Unfortunately, they usually seem to end with one person leaving the company. The following is a great article from Diane Stafford with the Kansas City Star just in time for Valentine’s Day.
“Young workers, particularly those starting out in big law and accounting firms or as hospital residents, often work long, long hours. In such situations, work pretty much becomes one’s life, and work colleagues become one’s friends.
There’s hardly time to “get a life” outside of the job or nurture outside relationships. No surprise, then, that romance blossoms at work. It happens even when long hours aren’t the norm. The work world is full of office romances. Some — quite publicly — go horribly awry. Sex and office politics can be a career-killing combination.
Fortunately, most intraoffice dating doesn’t end calamitously. Some co-workers even end up at the altar. But whatever the outcome, it’s smart to be careful with in-house relationships. It’s a fitting subject for the week of Valentine’s Day, when desks tend to bloom with bouquets and romantic messages zip through company e-mail systems.
Here are some generally accepted guidelines for keeping an office romance safe:
•Bosses, don’t date your employees. Employees, don’t date your bosses.
•No matter whom you date, keep the public displays of affection out of the workplace.
•Don’t send sexually suggestive notes to each other at work, especially not on the organization’s computer system.
•Save the flowers and other gifts for exchange at home.
•For that matter, try to keep the relationship private enough that it doesn’t become fodder for co-workers’ gossip.
•Understand that an extramarital affair may bring work consequences. Some organizations treat such affairs as contrary to the values it expects its employees (particularly its executives) to represent.
•When a relationship ends, be mature, civil and quiet about it.
Fewer organizations these days expressly forbid dating among co-workers. It’s just not practical, given the realities of time spent on the job. But when organizations are silent on the dating “rules,” the onus is on workers to self-police their relationships.
Train wreck or true bliss: You make the call.”
Comments