Company social events provide a hotbed for office romances
I must say that I've never known of a company hosting office picnics, but a new study in America reveals that they are apparently the starting point f
or many a work based affair. A VAULT.com study found that nearly half of the American work force has been romantically involved with someone at work, with another study suggesting that work sponsored social events are the most popular environment for such things to blossom.
I must say that I havn't really come across that many office romances in my career thus far. Thankfully there are a few books available that cover the issue, and how you can deal with it. Arguably the best is Sex at work: a survival guide.
Looking at all aspects of sexual politics in the workplace, from the office party flirtation, the office affair, from sexual innuendo to blatant sexual harassment. Drawing on real life experiences and containing pointers to key legislation and best practice, this publication offers advice to both managers and employees. The main areas looked at are: jokes or sexual harassment? the office romance, the office party and after-hours working, sex on the internet, email and phone, and how and when to speak up and take action.
If you're not a CMI member you can buy the book on Amazon.
How does your company handle office romances?
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Comments
Whilst picnics may not be popular in the UK for workforces it is a big thing in the US. UK is more likely to be the office Christmas party, the works outing etc. where affairs start (and sometimes end).
Drink is often a core cause - people drop their guard, some get more daring etc.
Don't think you will ever stop it but you can certainly take actions to help cut out the harassment issue.
One of the Regional Managers I worked with once had a complaint made to him whilst visiting a Branch Office when a presentation on sexual harassment was made. The sales lady in question said she wanted to complain about sexual harassment. Both the Regional and Branch manager were panicky as they weren't exactly angels. Tentatively asking what her sexual harassment complaint was they heard her say - I'm not getting enough. It was a great relief to them but highlighted the dangers faced in the workplace. Did they learn their lesson - unfortunately not and they both carried on as before.
The laugh and the joke are fine until such time as things go wrong. Then you can expect the complaint to be filed for real.
It isn't always women who are sexually harassed but how many men would want to own up to it? It is probably even harder for them than women as they are expected to 'be a man' and deal with it. What sort of support or help would they get? Probably very little.
Setting and maintaining standards of workplace behaviour comes from the top and be clear with regard to workplace conduct. When the boundaries become blurred people that work together can make errors of judgement especially as Ray notes when alcohol is in the mix. Office romances can be difficult to manage especially if one of the loved up couple is senior to the other - this can cause problems if other staff feel the relationship is affecting decision making and if the loved up couple split the atmosphere can be very tense. I don't socialise with the people I work with not because I don't hold them in high regard but because I do.
Many larger companies used to have rules in the past that required that staff who were 'together' were required to work in separate offices/departments which would require one of them to transfer.
This resolved some issues such as the favouritsm and fallout from splitting up referred to by Susan. It also reduced the potential for fraud by collusion. Of course it doesn't stop all the problems if it is one of the big bosses having an affair since their influence covers such a wide area.
Of course these rules didn't apply to casual affairs at the offic christmas party because the people were not officially together and were reflective of a time when 'together' was more likely to have meant married.
There is certainly a case from the risk aspect of collusion to separate couples at work. Would be interesting to know if any firms still have this sort of policy and in what circumstances they apply it.