Office Romance Is Now Acceptable, For Everyone But The Boss Companies’ Fear Of Lawsuits Leaves The Bosses Out In The Cold
Like red roses and Valentine’s Day, office romances are now part of many a love life. Companies usually look the other way when sparks fly at work - except when it’s the boss who’s cavorting.
Fearful of lawsuits and other hostile endings, most companies frown on amorous relations between bosses and subordinates. And unlike years ago - when the subordinate paid the price of discovery - bosses now are being held accountable for such affairs.
While it’s hard to draw any conclusions from the allegations that President Clinton had a sexual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, the storm of controversy places the issue right in the public spotlight.
“These situations can get very messy,” said Michael Karpeles, head of employment law for the Chicago law firm Goldberg, Kohn. “If your CEO is playing around with women employees, that could subject your company to major liability and damages in a way that you wouldn’t have seen 30 years ago.”
Yet the flames of workplace love are burning brighter than perhaps ever before, with men and women thrown together in larger numbers for longer hours. Once upon a time, spouses met at college; now they meet at work.
Forty percent of people said they have dated a co-worker and 71 percent said it was okay to do so, according to a recent survey of 400 people. The survey, published in Details magazine, had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Nor are bosses left out. Nearly one-quarter of 500 managers and executives surveyed by the American Management Association in 1995 said they’d had an office romance.
Of these, 33 percent of men and 15 percent of women said it occurred with a subordinate, while 9 percent of men and 17 percent of women said it happened with a superior, according to the survey, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
“Work is now a natural place where people are going to find each other,” said Jan Yager, a sociologist who studies friendships. “It’s part of the business of life.”
Amid the plentiful possibilities for love at the office, more and more companies are loosening once strict rules against dating co-workers. Only 0.4 percent of managers surveyed by the AMA worked for companies that banned all office dating.
Up until the 1970s, Electronic Data Systems fired adulterers, said spokeswoman Diane Coffman. But today EDS has no written policy on workplace love. “It’s not the business of the company,” said Coffman. “We expect people to behave professionally.”
AT&T, meanwhile, treats the issue with “benign neglect,” said spokesman Burke Stinson, noting that the company has no written policy on love at the office.
“You’re not going to stamp out romance,” said Stinson. “If you write down too much, you drive people underground.”
Still, AT&T, EDS and most other companies draw the line at romances between bosses and underlings. Such relationships raise a long list of potential sticky situations for all involved.
“If you have someone who’s rating another on performance evaluation, that may cause animosities among people who think there’s favoritism,” said Harry Britt, Coopers and Lybrand’s top ethics officer.
To address such a situation, the accounting firm in its written code of conduct requires the lovers to tell the partner in charge of their office. Then a transfer of one or both individuals is arranged. “If they’re both good performers, you’d want to keep them in the firm,” said Britt.
That’s a far cry from past eras when the subordinate would be transferred pronto, or even fired.
Today, even bosses can be held accountable, as the departure of Staples Inc. President Martin Hanaka last fall attests.
Hanaka resigned after the company found out he’d had an affair with a secretary, in violation of the company’s policy prohibiting romance between supervisors and subordinates. He was also arrested and charged with assaulting the secretary, but the charges were later dismissed.