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Is the Affair Bad for Business?

A tee-totaling boss wanted to prohibit her employees from drinking on business trips, even after work. She wrote to ask if such a policy was legal. It’s risky because some states have laws that prohibit employers from intruding on their employees’ lives after hours.

But what goes on in your office is another matter. The primary consideration regarding any behavior you deem unacceptable is whether it interferes with business. Two single colleagues who date may not be a concern, but a manager who has an affair with a subordinate, especially an extramarital one, might prove a costly distraction in the office. He will be the target of constant gossip and employees will view anything he does for his paramour as favoritism. The girlfriend, if jilted, could become angry enough to accuse the manager of sexual harassment.

Even if you don’t have a policy against dating—and 90 percent of companies don’t according to the online jobsite, Vault.com—you have to act before a relationship interferes with business.