ALT-2 How to Handle your Office Romance
Are you currently having a romance with someone in the office? If so, there is nothing inherently wrong with it. The heart wants what the heart wants, the only thing that you have to worry about is making sure that it is handled in the correct way. If handled in a way that causes problems, it will most likely cost you either the romance, your job or both.
What is a good way to handle an office romance? The best way to handle the office romance is to keep it quiet until you know that it is OK for it to come out. While there is nothing wrong with a couple dating at work, there are some companies that frown upon it for various reasons. Some companies believe it will compromise the integrity of the business, or it will cut down on productivity if two people are more interested in each other than the job.
If you think that the company will take action against you for having an office romance, it is better to just keep it quiet. Tell co-workers that you are friends and there is nothing more to the situation. If you really want to keep it quiet, go ahead and just pretend like you don't know each other at work and don't let on that something is going on between you and the other person.
Two people who are working for a company that doesn't care has things a tad easier. However, you still want to make sure that the focus is on the job as opposed to the relationship. Don't do anything that will cause people to think you are playing favorites. This will certainly be a hard thing to do, but make sure you are taking steps to make sure that favoritism isn't showing through.
If you are a manager, try staying away from dating someone who is working under you. While this doesn't always end up being a situation where an employee is dating a manager simply to get ahead, it could be viewed like that. You don't want to get a reputation as someone who either sleeps around to get ahead, or uses a position just to sleep around with employees.
Office romances happen, and there is nothing a company can really do to stop it. As an employee, it is on you to make sure that you are being smart about the choices you make, and make sure that nothing happens that impacts your status on the job.
