The "Work Spouse": Harmless Flirting or Slippery Slope to Harassment?
CNN informs us of the phenomenon known as the work spouse.
If you were an employer/manager and saw this sort of relationship developing between two of your employees, what would you do? To what extent are you concerned about the relationship going too far or falling apart and resulting in tension, reduced productivity, or harassment claims/liability? To what extent would you think it important not to interfere with your employees' personal (but perhaps not, strictly speaking, "private") relationships?
If you were an employer/manager and saw this sort of relationship developing between two of your employees, what would you do? To what extent are you concerned about the relationship going too far or falling apart and resulting in tension, reduced productivity, or harassment claims/liability? To what extent would you think it important not to interfere with your employees' personal (but perhaps not, strictly speaking, "private") relationships?
Labels: harassment, workplace relationships
posted by Professor Prenkert at
8:56 AM
1 Comments:
In an attempt to answer this question, I think another question should first be answered, "to what extent do you, as an empoyer, interfere with a romantic affair between two employees?" I realize that this is a bit more extreme, but I think the same moral principle is addressed regardless of the relationship being romantic or not. As an employer, in my opinion, you have the right to interfere up to the point that productivity is being affected or workplace morals or culture is being disrupted. If either situation is happening so publicly and obvious then the couple should not expect to keep the relationship a secret and should expect to be confronted. The workplace, in my opinion, is not the place to cultivate a deep, meaningful relationship. This is not to say that frienships can't be established, but the cultivation should occur outside work hours. In addition, if an emplpoyee is an at-will employee then, as an employer, you have the right to confront or even fire the employees if they are violating a code of conduct that you have deemed inappropriate.
If I were the employer, I would not have a problem with the close friendship of the two employees as long as they remained professional, were not violating any codes of conduct, and were adequately fulfilling their work duties. However, if their friendship became such that others were talking about it and it was becoming an office "hot topic" that would be an indication that the friendship was getting a bit out of hand, and thus would suggst that productivity, professionalism, etc. were being jeopardized. It is then that I would step in and address the situation at hand.
As a rule of thumb, employees should conduct themselves so that there is no question as to whether or not their work relationships are appropriate.
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