Should coworkers date?

I personally believe it is a very bad idea, but every company must set that policy for themselves and every person must make that decision for themselves. I however feel I must warn you all of the consequences that can develop from inter-office romances.

According to Dr. Paul Fadil, a professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of North Florida 57% of inter-office romances fail within the first year and 84% of them fail within five years. In other words the odds are strongly stacked against a relationship working out in the long-term future.

As a business owner or supervisor your job is to protect employees and the company. I feel the best way to do this is to have a policy against coworkers dating. If you do not have a policy forbidding inter-office dating you should at least have a policy that forbids anyone from dating a subordinate. If a superior is allowed to date a subordinate the company is at high risk for a sexual harassment lawsuit.

As an employee your main focus while at work should be about building your career and a relationship with a coworker may self-sabotage your career. You can easily lose the cohesiveness of a group when two pair-off together, and your coworkers may begin to resent any authority you may rightfully gain due to hard work because they think you are being treated special because of a relationship you are having with a superior.

I personally have never met anyone that I would like to spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with. I doubt anyone has ever met me and felt that way either! Relationships are going to happen at work, and some will become permanent but I urge discretion when deciding to date a fellow employee. If you are interested in someone at work please work on becoming good friends before you date. Quite often your romantic feelings for the coworker will evaporate over time and by becoming only friends no one is hurt and you have not created a rift in any of your other work relationships. If you realize that your feelings run much deeper than friendship you may ask for a transfer to another department or in some cases one of you may need to leave the company.

You may feel that you can be professional and discreet, and that may work for a while, but eventually someone will figure out what is happening. If the relationship ends one party is usually hurt and that forces your coworkers to deal with an awkwardness that they should not be subjected too. Your personal life and your career should be kept separate.