Office Romance
Tips & Advice to help you make your decision on Office Romance
Are you a human resources manager concerned about the effect that an office romance might have on your organization? If so, then you will want to learn more about the ways that you might approach this situation to help prevent certain behaviors from negatively affecting your workforce.
Depending on your organization, you might already have a policy that prevents office romances, especially if the relationship takes place between a boss and his or her subordinate. These types of relationships can often upset an organization because other employees start to wonder whether a certain person is getting special privileges. It can also have an impact on how the manager assigns job tasks and reviews employees.
If your organization does not have a policy forbidding these romances, then you want to make sure that you have plenty of information that will help you make an good choice that respects the freedoms of individuals and protects the organization from the harmful effects of a romance in the office. You can start by following the links that Business.com has posted on the left. These links will offer more information about ways that you can handle these and similar situations so that you do your job well by considering several factors before making a decision.
Office Romance
A well-crafted policy defining sexual harassment helps prevent lawsuitsBy Mary Sit, corporate writing/articles/Web content/scripts Mary Sit Communications It starts with a glance, a compliment, a smile. Flirting over the water cooler leads to lunches, provocative e-mails and before long, you're in the middle of a hot romance. Or perhaps two of your employees are dancing with Cupid.
Before you turn a blind eye and ignore the lovebirds – or before you indulge in dating an employee or subordinate yourself - remember these three guidelines to stay out of trouble:
- It's hard to enforce a no-dating policy – but a clearly written policy in an employee manual can shield you from future legal snafus.
- Understand the difference between giving compliments and harassing someone.
- Tread carefully, as sexual harassment complaints in small companies are on the rise
Know what the law says about sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is not just about undesired glances, comments or advances. A court ruling in California, for example, allows employees to sue for sexual harassment if they can prove the boss had an affair with someone he or she promoted.
Try: Inform yourself and your employees with low-cost, plain-English training booklets on sexual harassment from Business & Legal Reports. These inexpensive answers could save your business a lot of time and trouble later on.
Write a clear policy on office romance
While you can't legislate love, you can spell out what's acceptable at your workplace and what isn't. Your corporate culture, industry and your supervisory judgment will determine if you need to develop a fraternization policy. If you do, publish it and show it to new employees as part of their orientation.
Try: American Management Association has a self-study course on writing policy manuals. NFIB has guidance for preparing a small business policy.
Employ common sense in office behavior
Iron-clad rule: Managers shouldn't get romantically involved with those they supervise. Others will see this as a conflict of interest, and ultimately, it can hurt the firm.
Try: WorkRelationships.com offers training, consulting and a seminar on appropriate workplace behavior.
Consider an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Most romantic office trysts end – and some end messily. Help your employees cope with confidential, free counseling through your company's EAP.
Try: Find an EAP professional at Employee Assistance Professionals Association.
Find out what others think about romance in the workplace
Office romance is high-risk, but few human resource professionals and employees think it should be banned.
Try: Read surveys to find what others think about the rewards and risks of romance at work. Vault Inc., a career information company, has thousands of surveys, including one on workplace romance in which 59 percent of managers said they would interfere only if work were compromised.
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