A couple at work. Office romance has its cons and pros. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH
Love in the workplace is a reality and I am sure you have met a couple or two who met at work and probably even ended up married.
Given that we spend so much time working — more than a third of our lives will actually be spent in the workplace — there is a high chance that you will meet your life partner at work.
This becomes a very complex situation. When you find yourself engaging in conversations frequently with someone, looking forward to seeing them every day, longing for Mondays and taking extra care of your appearance because you know you will interact, there is a problem.
The problem is cupid has struck and in a very awkward environment that is far from ideal for such attractions.
This situation becomes even more complex if this person is in the same department as you are or even worse if this person is your manager. Office affairs are a reality of life though and many of us who are reading this article have a knowing smile, remembering how you met your significant other.
As we grow older, climb up the career leader and are given more responsibilities, opportunities to meet people outside of the work environment is reserved for the social butterflies who make time to expand and maintain their social circles outside of work.
Should you find yourself in this situation, don’t beat yourself up too much as you are a human being and it is a perfectly normal occurrence for something like that to happen given how many hours in the week you spend at work.
However, exercise caution and ensure you are maintaining a high level of professionalism and not getting distracted from achieving your goals at work. Of particular importance is the following considerations.
Conflict of Interest is the first thing you need to consider. Does this person report to you or are they in your team? It is not practical to carry out a performance review for someone you are romantically involved with and this automatically exposes the performance management process to a lot of bias given your involvement with this person.
This becomes unfair to the rest of the team. Also, opportunities to give feedback on performance may not be taken that seriously by your direct report if you are romantically involved.
This not only makes the process flawed but your romantic interest becomes a source of distraction for you and loses opportunities to focus and develop themselves.
If you are serious about this relationship, it is a good idea for one of you to leave the organisation or actively seek a transfer to a department where there would be no conflict of interest.
What does the organisation policy say about relationships at work?
Some are more relaxed about it as long as there is no conflict of interest but others outrightly forbid it.
Other organisations may require that the relationship is declared to avoid the conflict of interest.
Find out if there is anything documented that can guide you on whether this is generally acceptable and if it is, what rules have been laid down to manage such relationships.
Whatever you do, this is one thing you want to completely avoid. Not only will it come across as highly unprofessional and even lower your brand with your colleagues, but it can also make the rest of the employees extremely uncomfortable.
You want to steer away from this and keep it very professional despite the feelings you may be having towards this person.
Connect with each other outside the work environment and maintain the workplace for what it is intended. Work!
In addition, you do not want the risk of being accused of gross misconduct in the form of sexual harassment.
You never know how things can pan out and you do not want to complicate your life unnecessarily.
Also, keep in mind that while others will have the luxury of completely moving on with no distractions following a painful relationship break up, you will face the risk of having to see your former partner in crime every day of the week should things not work out.
This could be a distraction, emotionally taxing and even affect your productivity at work.
Happy Valentine’s Day and remember to keep it professional should you be involved in a whirlwind romance with a colleague.
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