How to Keep a Work Relationship
With staffers working longer hours it is only natural that romantic relationships will develop at work. Once generally forbidden, dating a co-worker is now more acceptable. A romantic relationship that starts and occurs in a work setting requires both partners to take action to keep their work relationship separate from their romantic relationship. Keeping a work relationship professional, despite your status outside of the office, reduces the chances that fault will be found in your performance and the odds that you will need to find new employment.
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Instructions
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Set rules. Discuss with your partner the importance of keeping your relationship separate from work and develop rules that allow you to meet this goal. For example, agree to refrain from talking to colleagues about the relationship or one another. Also, heated or important personal discussions should occur outside of the office. While it may be acceptable for your co-workers to know that you are dating, the less obvious the relationship is, and the less time you seem to spend on it during work, the less likely it will be to cause problems at work.
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Focus on work. Regardless of who you are dating, you are being paid to work and not to socialize. Since you work with your partner it may be easy for you to send cute instant messages or stop by his office for a chat, but this kind of behavior is unprofessional and should be avoided. If you and your partner are assigned to the same project, time spent together in the office should be spent on work and not on personal issues.
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Be fair. Do not favor your partner over other co-workers unless there is a valid justification for doing so. One of the most common ways for a romantic relationship to be challenged in the workplace is when staffers feel that a manager or supervisor is giving preferential treatment to his significant other. For this reason, some companies do not allow subordinates to date their superiors. If your company does not have firm rules in this area, when making personnel decisions, you must always be aware of the potential appearance of conflict of interest and be capable of justifying your decisions.
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Tips & Warnings
In a bad economy, dating a co-worker is riskier than usual. In addition to having the potential to conjure feelings of jealousy and resentment among staffers, a romantic relationship can make layoff decisions easier if superiors feel that the couple is sometimes distracted by their relationship.
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