Love in the lunchroom?

Hal and Sharon are exemplary employees. Both are punctual, hardworking, and exceed job expectations. They’ve recently started taking their breaks together and sitting together at lunch.

Rumors the two are dating have started to circulate. Their supervisor wonders what, if anything, to do if the rumors are true.

Romance brings risks

While workplace culture varies, and every romantic relationship is unique, decreased productivity and employee morale are common risks when employees become romantically involved with one another.

What to do — and avoid

These dos and don’ts can help you navigate the choppy waters of workplace romance:

1. Do know the company dating policy. If the company prohibits employees from dating one another, Hal and Sharon should each be privately reminded of the policy. Granted, they’ll probably just become secretive about it, but at least they’ll know.
2. Do know the company sexual harassment policy. A relationship can start out as consensual but become harassment when one party wants to end it and the other doesn’t. Be aware that a relationship between a supervisor and subordinate increases an employer’s risk of liability if the subordinate claims the supervisor took an adverse employment action because of a break-up.
3. Don’t act on rumor alone, and don’t become the romance police. Give employees every opportunity to acknowledge if they are dating someone in the company, but don’t interrogate or snoop. If the relationship is having no impact on how the employees do their jobs, and the couple is not making anyone uncomfortable, perhaps business as usual is the best course of action.
4. Don’t ignore inappropriate behavior. If Hal and Sharon’s public displays of affection at work are blatant and frequent, quietly take them each aside and ask that they restrict their workplace amorous activities.
5. Don’t tolerate drama and distraction. Deal with anything that affects work performance as a work performance issue. Take appropriate action if the romance disrupts the workplace.
6. Don’t discriminate. You can’t celebrate Hal and Sharon’s relationship and forbid Mike and Jessica’s (or Mike and Carl’s for that matter), unless there are circumstances that make the other romance a violation of company policy. For example, some policies don’t allow members of the same work team to date. Others prohibit romantic relationships between a manager and direct report.