About 40% of employees have been involved in a workplace romance at some point in their careers, according to the new 2006 Workplace Romance report by CareerJournal.com, The Wall Street Journalís executive career site. This may explain why there is less negative stigma associated with workplace romance as only 4% of human resource (HR) professionals and 14% of employees felt that romance shouldnít be permitted at work.
The 2006 Workplace Romance report surveyed 493 HR professionals and 408 employees to explore their views and policies about dating at work. The report compares the findings to a similar report from 2001.
The 2006 survey found that more than 70% of organizations donít have policies on workplace romance and of those that do, the vast majority discourage dating rather than forbid it. Only 9% of organizations prohibit dating in the workplace entirely, especially between subordinates and supervisors.
ìOffice romance is inevitable at many companies when unmarried people work closely together,î says Tony Lee, publisher, CareerJournal.com. ìBut colleagues who are dating should find out what their companyís policies and restrictions are on workplace romance so they can avoid improper or embarrassing consequences.î
Less Concern about Sexual Harassment Claims
The 2006 Workplace Romance report found that HR professionals have shifted their concerns about problems stemming from workplace romance during the past four years. In a similar survey conducted by CareerJournal.com in 2001, 95% of HR professionals feared sexual harassment claims would stem from office romances and just 12% were concerned about retaliation or conflicts between co-workers after a relationship ended. In this survey, HR professionalsí sexual harassment concerns dropped to 77% from 95%, while retaliation concerns jumped dramatically to 67% from 12%.
Since the last survey, employees seem to favor less workplace romance policies but greater formal reprimands when policies are broken. Fifty-two percent (52%) of employees (compared with 8% in 2001) felt that a formal reprimand is appropriate for workers who violate employee policy. HR professionals (80%) and employees (60%) agreed that supervisors and subordinates shouldnít be dating.
On a happy note, HR professionals reported that 62% of those involved in workplace romances ended up getting married.
New survey reveals that many employees have had an office romance
Few Companies Have Policies Against Dating Co-workers
