To date or not to date: that is the question.
If you were to ask my opinion
regarding dating in the workplace, I am appalled by it. Yes, I believe in love
- in fact, I am a romantic - but I do
not believe that it will bring any good to the workplace. I’m saying this
because I believe that personal relationships must not mix or interfere with
business relationships. And I guess, I’m choosing to follow the line of the 12%
of workplaces that simply prohibit workplace dating. However, I do not believe
that the decision I should make is to fire the pair immediately.
Yes, we can say that not all
relationships end in bad terms, but we can’t say that it will hold true for all
relationships in case a company does allow workplace dating. When these
relationships do end in bad terms, imagine how they will interact with each
other when they work in the same place? This might result to poorer performance
and they might get emotionally stressed. They won’t be able to avoid each other
even if they wanted to.
Then there is the issue of the
employer-employee relationship. Relationships like these are very controversial
because employees are put in a position where people think they did that in
order to get the job or get promoted – which may or may not be the case for
some. When rumors like these spread around, the image of the employee and the
company is ruined. Furthermore, employees might lose respect for their
employers/bosses. They would think, “Why would we need guidance from someone
who gets fooled easily?” or “I can’t respect someone who dates colleagues the
same level as we are.”
In case I am the boss and I implement
the no dating in the workplace policy but I catch my employees and/or their
bosses dating each other, I would not think twice about it: I will either fire
the pair or separate them into two different departments. I know that there are
desires we can not control. But in order to enable a pair to work efficiently
and comfortably, I will most likely separate them into different departments.
However, if they did something that has put my company at stake, I will not
hesitate to fire them both (especially if they are not great assets to the
company.)
In the end, I believe that there are
relationships that work both for business and personal relations. It is not in
my place to tell whether these relationships will end up in marriage or
whatnot. I do not want to deprive them of the chance to find out whether they
will find the love they’ve always wanted to have with each other. But, as an
employer/manager, it is also my job to think of their well-being, the effect of
their relationship in the workplace, and the risks I am putting my business
into. I guess the most important thing to do is to take action immediately. As
to what action I will take, I will base it on the information I have gotten and
on instinct. That is all that I have to say about workplace dating.
No comments:
Post a Comment