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OK at Work, hosted by Offit Kurman attorneys Russell Berger and Sarah Sawyer, is a weekly podcast that discusses current events and legal issues impacting business owners. From updates on the ever-changing employment law landscape to the risks and benefits of integrating AI into your workplace, subscribe to stay up-to-date on issues and events that may impact you and your business.
Sarah Sawyer: Welcome to this
week's OK at Work with myself, Sarah
Sawyer, my colleague Russell Berger,
both attorneys at Offit Kurman.
And today in honor of Valentine's Day, we
are talking about office relationships or
work related relationships, I should say.
It's a recent Forbes survey that
noted that just over 40% of people
surveyed, noted that they had
married someone they met at work.
It also reported that 24% have gone
on a date with a colleague and 17%
of employees have been in an official
relationship with someone from work.
So , there's Some interesting stats.
There's some other ones at
that are part of that survey.
Obviously every survey's
got some variations to it,
but ultimately, point being.
People meet and get married at work or,
coincidentally from meeting at work.
And that can create some challenges
for employers or the employers who are
hearing that stat, I'm sure might feel
a little startled by that statistic
and a little apprehensive about it.
So what are things that employers
should be thinking about
in light of this reporting?
Russell Berger: Yeah, well, I think
the number one takeaway and, it's
hard to say how accurate those stats
are 'cause it's always gonna be
dependent on people's self-reporting.
But, if You've got more than like
10 or 15 employees, you're probably
dealing with this, and even if you
have less than 10 or 15 employees,
you might be dealing with it too.
But just, if you have enough
employees, like the percentages are
high enough, like it's happening,
within your workforce at some level.
So it's something you have to
deal with, you can't ignore.
And obviously the starting
point for this are the laws that
prevent workplace discrimination
and retaliation and harassment?
So, there's nothing inherently unlawful
about a workplace relationship.
But it can go sideways a lot of
different ways and can violate the law.
Certainly you could have someone that
is too aggressive about pursuing it.
It could be an unrequited love.
And, that can lead to harassment
and discrimination in the
workplace, or even retaliation.
Talked a lot about discrimination
and quid pro quo sexual harassment.
It just can really go
sideways really fast.
And even when it's not in that
context what we do see is, if you do
everything right and it's a consent,
truly a consensual relationship and
consensual in a work context is,
maybe a little bit harder to define.
But even when it truly is consensual,
other employees might say, well, this
person's getting better opportunities
because they're in a relationship with
and you run into that issue as well.
So, the way we all often plan for this
in employee handbooks is to reiterate
the anti-discrimination policy, the
anti-harassment, the anti-retaliation
policy, and when we do address kind
of consensual workplace relationships,
and we wanna make sure that they
don't involve any kind of supervisory
relationship or people on the same
team where there's a hierarchy.
'cause then you just get into
the issues of favoritism.
Maybe you're too hard on the person
you're in the relationship with
as a manager because you don't
want people to, think otherwise.
And now you're treating
that person on unfairly.
So, at bare minimum the best thing to do
is to avoid office romances that involve
any type of supervisory relationship.
Sarah Sawyer: Yeah, no, I think
that obviously the size of a company
is gonna make a difference here.
It's a little bit more challenging
sometimes with smaller companies
versus maybe people who are in
different departments or can be moved
to different departments, right?
So, a lot of policies sometimes will
contain reporting requirements around
reporting the relationships so that
the company can examine it for those
types of challenges and issues.
And with a larger company might be
able to move some things around to,
if you've got two good employees and
that might be an issue of concern.
There's ways to address that.
So I think really what we're highlighting
here is like addressing the impact.
And you can have bright line rules
on these things, but a lot of times
it makes more sense to highlight the
impact, highlight these other, making
sure that there's compliance with other
types of policies, conflicts of interest
what you mentioned with harassment and
discrimination and just other workplace
policies can kind of help support how
you might handle something like this.
Because especially in a bigger company,
it's gonna be different depending on who
the people are, what their roles are.
You mentioned because of authority
and reporting structure, but
even just, there's a lot of
different things that can play in.
And so, allowing a little bit of
flexibility and focusing on the
impact and mitigating the risk and
finding a good solution is often a
way that I think a lot of employers
deal with this, especially when you're
looking at these stats, if these stats
are accurate or close to accurate,
that could be a lot of people
that, if you've got a bright line
rule that you might have to be
addressing throughout the years.
And it might not always be the
most beneficial to the company if
you've got kind of just a bright
line prohibition on these things.
Russell Berger: Yeah.
Right.
And I do think the, demographics
of your workforce and in addition
to the size of your workforce
matter in this conversation.
If I were to drill down on it
specifically I definitely think
the supervisors probably ought to
be held to a different standard.
And you gotta be a little bit more careful
with that aspect of office relationship
because, if everyone's in the same pool,
I mean, it can still lead to, negative
consequences and disrupt the workplace.
But it's less problematic.
It's a lower risk than if you've got
supervisors that are engaging in romantic
relationships with a subordinate or even,
somebody who's not a direct subordinate,
it might still stir the pot a little bit.
Sarah Sawyer: Yeah.
And some can be industry specific
as well, depending on the type
of business and those things.
So, good lawyer answers
in this episode, Russell.
It depends.
But no, I think that's great.
Great guidance.
I think and a main takeaway
from my perspective is these
things are out there, right?
It's going on.
So being, wanting to turn a blind
eye to it and not pay attention
to it is not the solution.
Not that we would ever recommend
turning a blind eye to something
and not paying attention.
We're very much always talking
about proactivity here, but,
but definitely something that
employers need to be thinking about.
Russell Berger: Isn't, it depends
one of those things they print on
like the little candy hearts too.
Should get those for the office.
Sarah Sawyer: We should.
All right let's place an order.
All right.
Thanks Russell.
We'll see you next time.
Russell Berger: Thanks, Sarah.