The series of significant Mondays continues next week with Valentine’s Day sounding a more uplifting note than Blue, Bounce Back and Sicknote Mondays. Meanwhile, one of Country & Western’s most legendary artists improbably leads the way on employee engagement.
Now that more of us have returned to the office, forward-thinking HR operatives may be looking around for that policy on romantic liaisons between employees, particularly if they’ve remembered the case of Steve Easterbrook, the former McDonald’s chief executive.
And with the imminent, if controversial, withdrawal of Covid restrictions possibly triggering a relaxing of people’s caution around the pandemic, it could be that more of us will unwisely discard our masks – only adding to HR’s fear of misguided office love intrigue.
Legal experts at Wright Hassall decided this was the time to survey UK office workers and gauge the scale of the “problem”. It found that almost a quarter (24.4%) of people admitted to having a romantic encounter at work, of whom 27.6% were male and 21.5% female. Probably statistically irrelevant but somehow worth noting is the revelation that the West Midlands had the highest proportion of office lovers at 34.6%.
The West Midlands had the highest proportion of office lovers at 34.6%”
Of course much of this is above board – why shouldn’t work connect people in this way? It seems more natural than a dating app, one could argue. But the figure also included 13% who had an affair with a work colleague – perhaps not such a healthy pursuit. Many would agree that love, sex and romance is part of the very fabric of human life, but not it seems for HR.
Getting serious
Tina Chander, head of employment law at Wright Hassall, is decidedly HR-y about the whole messy business and adopted something of the tone of a bike shed supervisor at a co-ed school. She pours a metaphorical bucket of icy water over proceedings: “Firstly, an office romance can have implications on the productivity in the workplace, not just for the people involved, but for the wider staff too, as rumours and gossip spread, leading to wasted time and potentially complaints of favouritism being shown too.” Productivity? Really?
Workplace romances
Why employers should be wary of workplace romances: podcast
Valentine’s Day: 10 potential problems with workplace romances
Where there’s emotion, there’s inevitably an HR policy. Chander ramps up the gravity of romantic liaisons: “There can be much more serious issues to come out of workplace romances too, such as sexual harassment claims, which is why it’s so important that you’re aware of any budding relationships.” Yet being made “aware of budding relationships” risks exposure to gossip and a decline in productivity though, surely?
Anyway, the trump card having been played with the mention of sexual harassment, the rather righteous Wright Hassall press release adopts a softer tone, releasing a veritable trail of rose petals towards the boudoir: “In terms of legality, it’s important to know that you can’t just stop employees from starting a relationship. To do so would be a breach of their human rights under the Human Rights Act 1998, which guarantees employees a right to privacy and in truth, the relationship is still likely to develop away from the office without your knowledge anyway.”
An office romance can have implications on the productivity in the workplace” – Tina Chander, Wright Hassall
Chander concludes that “any romances that do occur are doing so responsibly and that all sides are properly protected”. Easier said than done, perhaps.
‘Love not loans’ in Dollywood
But there’s another aspect to workplace love that’s been little explored: how about employers showing a little bit of love towards employees?
Dolly Parton knows a thing or two about the 9 to 5 and has seduced workers at her Dollywood Tennessee theme park with a free educational programme founded on the principle of care for employees. Herschend Enterprises, which co-runs the park and others in the chain, has said the Grow U scheme will fund tuition, fees and books for employees.
CEO Andrew Wexler said this was because “we care about our employees’ personal and professional growth, because we believe that their futures should be grown with love, not loans”.
The Dollywood Company’s president Eugene Naughton said that “when workers are happy and feel cared for they are going to pass that along to our guests”. A key tenet of the Dollywood Foundation is to “learn more” he added. “This program is created with that very tenet in mind. We want our hosts to develop themselves through advanced learning to fulfill the foundation’s other tenets: care more, dream more, and be more.”
Grow U will kick off on 24 February and will include options for diploma, degree and certificates in fields such as business administration, finance and technology.
It is hoped that it will be a long-lasting initiative, so perhaps Dolly can tell workers I Will Always Love You.
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
Browse more human resources jobs
