Although day-to-day tasks tend to keep employees busy at all times, it is sometimes normal for employees to bond with each other. In fact, according to a study conducted in 2020 by the Society for Human Resource Management in the United States, 19% of the employees had a romantic relationship at work.
On the other hand, Adecco Colombia conducted a survey of 556 workers of whom 56% confessed to having felt physical attraction at work for one of their colleagues. Logical! After all, work is where you spend the most hours of your day. At Edenred Spain we also wanted to ask our users what they think about mixing love and work, and they have returned their evaluations. More than 50% believe that it is an explosive mixture, because they consider that it can generate conflicts within the company.
However, even today it is still taboo to talk about love relationships at work. Should we therefore prevent them? That would be impossible! But what is possible, given that they are natural and unavoidable, is to warn about the problems that can arise from them and to take some measures so that the personal does not affect the professional.
Maintain love relationships at work it can also have its benefits, such as greater adherence to the work schedule by the partner, greater involvement with the company, as well as extra support in any eventuality…
However, they tend to bring more disadvantages than advantages. Here are some of them:
Discussions can get personal and professional mixed up and an ambitious project can be affected by unnecessary conflicts.
With regard to the Work-life balance, it is possible that the two involved may not have similar holidays or schedules, so they will have more difficulty spending time together.
On the other hand, if one member of the couple has an issue with another employee, the other person might unconsciously develop a certain detachment towards that worker.
Looking after the best interests of the organisation and without the intention of prohibiting employees from expressing their emotions, it is worth considering some measures that can help maintain productivity and a good atmosphere within the company.
Since we cannot fight feelings, we must understand romantic relationships at work as natural and handle them with the utmost transparency. Having a very strict philosophy in this regard can lead to employees conducting relationships in secret, which would most certainly lead to rumours and gossip.
Although romantic relationships at work sometimes bring out the best in a couple, it is necessary to assign tasks that allow the two individuals to develop their separate skills. If you both embark on a project and personal problems arise, the end result of the work may suffer and affect the rest of the team.
Therefore, where possible, you can try to speak with individuals separately and respectfully ask them which area they prefer to work in, or where they believe they could excel most, in order to assign different tasks to each.
In this regard, it is indeed important to set boundaries and not allow personal arguments to occur during the working day. If, on the other hand, it is a work-related discussion between members of a couple, the figure of a mediator who addresses the issue separately with each of those involved until an agreement is reached can be practical. Furthermore, this mediator could help to ensure that, in the event of a breakup, the relationship remains as cordial as possible.
Although it is good that there is transparency, if the couple decides to tell their superiors that they are in a romantic relationship, the person responsible must be prudent and not share it with the rest of the employees, in order to respect the privacy of the two individuals, if they have requested it. Otherwise, people might change their attitude or how they act towards them.
When romantic relationships occur at work between a boss or superior and an employee in a lower position, it can lead to them being treated differently from other employees. For example, the superior might be less demanding or be too demanding in an attempt to show favouritism. Therefore, it is necessary to highlight these situations to prevent them from occurring.
Although a romantic relationship can bring challenges into the workplace, with these measures it's possible to keep productivity in check and maintain a healthy and productive work environment. What do you think? Have you ever had a problem in your company stemming from a relationship?
