What happens when Cupid strikes at work?

With Valentine’s Day upon us, our attention often turns to romance.

Not surprisingly, given the number of hours we spend at work, romantic relationships are bound to develop there, especially in those environments that involve close collaboration, long work days and after-work socializing.

“Workplace romantic relationships are associated with higher levels of job involvement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and development of long term sincere relationships. Accordingly, some organizations, such as Southwest Airlines, openly encourage these relationships,” explains Rick Hackett, professor and Canada Research Chair of Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance at the DeGroote School of Business.

However, a caveat is in order. Such positive outcomes are reserved for those relationships that are “power-balanced” – where partners are of equal status within the organization.

In 2011, Vault.com reported that 59 per cent of survey respondents dated someone at work at least once during their career. 20 per cent of employees reported being in a relationship with a boss, and another 15 per cent reported having a relationship with someone they supervised.

Monster.com found that 75 per cent of respondents of a 2010 survey thought that an office romance inevitably ends in conflict, with 62 per cent feeling that such relationships could detract from job performance.

Hackett explains that romantic relationships between supervisor and direct report are often damaging to an organization. Peers are quick to question the motivations of their romanced co-worker, resulting in distrust, broken communications, perceived favouritism, hoarding of information and low unit morale.

Furthermore, a subordinate in a romantic relationship with a supervisor will often lodge a complaint of sexual harassment when efforts to terminate the relationship are not well received, thereby creating an atmosphere of conflict, leaving the organization legally vulnerable.

So, what’s an organization to do?

“Companies should prohibit romantic relationships between supervisor and subordinates, and between senior-level executives and subordinates; essentially those relationships where perceptions of favouritism by co-workers are likely to develop.  In the absence of such a policy, and where a romantic relationship develops across hierarchical lines of authority, one member of the relationship should be transferred to another unit, thereby defusing any perceived conflict of interest,” says Hackett.

Moreover, managers and their workers should be given some basic background knowledge of the boundaries the organization places around workplace romances. Managers in particular require some skills-based training in how to manage and counsel their employees when “cupid strikes at work.”