Many professionals are becoming too busy to find romance the old way, whatever that may look like, and more and more are saying they don’t find “pub romance” as appealing as it used to be. As a result, they end up dating people they work with, which certainly comes as no surprise.
Unfortunately, many of these workplace relationships fall apart as quickly as they form, and sometimes they end up causing problems for one or both parties down the road.
Personal Relationships Seen as Conflict of Interest
Relationships between managers and their direct reports are particularly risky, and most companies discourage or even prohibit them. Why? A personal relationship between a manager and someone who reports to them can be seen as a conflict of interest, due to the fact that the manager is in a position to influence or exert authority over the other person.
Policies Dealing with Personal and Family Relationships at Work
Most companies will in fact have a policy around personal and family relationships at work, and will specifically outline their requirements for people to remain free from influence of any conflicting interest. Examples of conflicting interest include:
- Any type of work that will be reviewed and approved by the other person
- Being responsible to review the other person’s performance, provide them with feedback, and assign them a performance rating
- Being responsible for recommending and approving a salary increase or any other type of compensation
- Being in a position to decide what type of work (or clients) goes to the other person
- Being in a position to make and approve promotion recommendations for the other person
- Being in a position to approve the other person’s expense reports
Not disclosing a personal or family relationship that can be seen as a conflict of interest will often times lead to disciplinary actions up to and including employment termination. It is therefore important to review the company's policies and discuss the details with an HR professional.
Can Personal Relationships Result in Harassment Complaints?
Any work relationships, and particularly those between managers and their direct reports, can sometimes deteriorate to the extent that they turn into harassment cases. Sometimes, after a break-up, the person complaining of harassment may be doing it simply to get back at the other person. Other times, there may be reasonable cause for a company to investigate the complaint.
Regardless of the specific situation, personal relationships in the workplace should not be taken lightly, as unhappy endings can bring about a long list of complications, not to mention that they can sometimes cause a valuable employee to leave the company just to get away from the other person.
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