According to some statistics, approximately 15-20 percent of couples meet at work. While perhaps not the predominate manner for individuals to find love, it does reflect that a decent portion of the population finds romance at the location she/he spends most of her/his day. One’s enchantment, however, could be another’s heartache with on-the-job romances providing an array of situations that may give employers heartburn. As such, management and those who advise them may gravitate towards an outright prohibition on workplace dating. But the pursuit of such a measure may not be necessary. Indeed, in a world dominated by social media and, consequently, a lessening in face-to-face interactions, curtailing the ability of those who breathe life into the company from finding happily ever after may be a tad draconian. As such, corporate counsel, in conjunction with human resources management (HRM), should consider drafting and implementing a balanced dating policy that both respects the employee’s personal lives yet protects the employer’s interests in avoiding touchy personnel matters.

Consider the following situation: A romance blossoms between two individuals working in the same department. One of them is promoted to a managerial position, with supervisory responsibilities over the other. The relationship runs its course, and the once lovebirds part ways amicably. Shortly thereafter, the supervisor must draft the performance review of the now-subordinate and, in so doing, honestly assesses the subordinate’s work subpar. Downtrodden by the less-than-stellar review, the subordinate seeks a scapegoat, and quickly blames the former paramour, alleging the review’s genesis has less to do with actual performance deficiencies and more to do with jilted feelings.