Office Romance : Why Contract it? and its Worth?

Work-oriented cultures in today’s organizations have no place for office romances and the related topics of sex and privacy. With more and more employees working day in and day out and spending significant time of their day on-the-job, romantic relationships at work is increasingly becoming inevitable. This has resulted into an important issue confronted by most employers today.

The WALMART Case:

In 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals along with guidance from the Supreme Court held WALMART stores vicariously responsible for sexual harassment committed by one of its supervisors in the Defenbaugh-Williams v. WalMart Stores case. The case aroused when one of their district managers stated during a meeting a certain female would never move up in the hierarchy as she was supposedly in a romantic relationship with a black man in the office. The manager later became the female’s supervisor drafted a series of disciplinary actions on her on grounds of workplace policy which resulted in her termination. The female employee in return sued a case of sexual harassment.

The Result:
Due to cases like this many employers adopt policies addressing romantic relationship in the workplace as a protection from litigation and potential liability. However such policies vary largely in terms of the range. Some are very strict, like comprehensive prohibition of dating among employees, to the more lenient, like policy that actively discourages, but tacitly allows, fraternizing. This indeed protects the interest of the employer when cases like that of WALMART arise.

For Employee’s:
I also believe that employees should be able to judge the consequences while mixing Love and Work. It is OK for employees to be in a romantic relationship in the workplace until and unless it does not affect their productivity at the workplace, de-motivate or annoy other colleagues or have an indirect/direct impact on the work environment.

Is it Worth It?
But before entering into such a relationship, employees should evaluate its worth taking into consideration two important things:
1. Your colleagues around and how they are affected by the same.

There's a risk of alienating from rest of your department or peers when employees enter into a relationship which indirectly affects his/her professional growth and development.

2. Conflict with one’s significant other.
This puts an awkward strain on the workplace dynamics among the employees in the relationship and among peers/colleagues as well.