Face it, love and sex are going to happen at work, whether or not office romances have been historically frowned upon. As an HR professional, you’re often faced with the responsibility of dealing with office romances once the flame has fizzled and issues start to creep up. We explore a new study that shows some interesting insights about love in the workplace, and we offer tips on how to get a handle on office romances before you’re stuck dealing with any negative repercussions.
How popular is workplace love?
Glassdoor analyzed hundreds of thousands of company reviews posted anonymously by employees on Glassdoor between 2008 and 2015. Using search analysis of keywords in reviews, Glassdoor singled out examples of employees using phrases related to workplace romance, such as “met my husband/wife,” “found my soul mate” and “dated my co-worker.”
Across more than 200 companies where these key phrases appeared, some interesting patterns emerged from the data:
- Love is (gender) blind: Women (52%) report finding love slightly more than men (48%).
- Youth and romance: Nearly two-thirds (63%) are younger than 40, 30% are in their 30s, 31% in their 20s and 1% under 20. Just 10% are 60 or older.
- Romance by industry: Two trends stand out. First, employees in relatively lower-skilled jobs, such as retail associates, which tend to be dominated by younger workers, report finding love at work at a higher frequency than others. Second, we also see that industries that offer a high level of social interaction on the job tend to find love at work most often.
Glassdoor Economic Research also noted the top five industries with employees reporting romance in the workplace. They are: Real Estate (#1; 0.033% of reviews), Entertainment (#2; 0.027% of reviews), Transportation (#3; 0.019% of reviews), Food Services (#4; 0.017% of reviews) and Retail (#5; 0.016% of reviews). The chart below shows a breakdown of just how likely it is that love can be found for more than 20 industries:
3 tips on managing office romance before it’s too late
Love is tricky, and it can be even trickier when you are the HR person trying to manage co-worker romances. Below are three keys to help any employer be a trusted gatekeeper of love so that everyone plays fairly and safely.
1. Have waivers signed.
The largest mishap with workplace love is when it doesn’t work out and one party claims the relationship wasn’t consensual. Waivers at the start of a relationship can help mitigate that very serious risk. For example, what if one party starts stalking the other when the relationship ends? A waiver might include verbiage that gives the employer the right to terminate or transfer that employee.
Urging employees to be transparent and alert HR when relationships begin (and end) can also help protect each party in the long run.
2. Treat individuals as individuals.
Once a relationship is official, treat each individual as his or her own person who contributes to the workplace. In other words, avoid automatically lumping couples together. Further, be sure each individual’s manager is brought up to speed. Make it clear that no one should treat any member of the relationship differently (as a result of the relationship).
3. Don’t allow vertical dating.
Even if office romance is tolerated, never allow relationships where one party reports to the other – this applies to family members in the workplace, too! To ensure there is no bias in performance reviews and that no employee is receiving preferential treatment, ensure that employees are not dating their supervisor and that no family members report to one another. In these instances, it’s best to transfer one member to a separate team or department to avoid complications.
Although romance is often discouraged in the workplace, the data shows that employees
do find love at work, and some aren’t afraid to share those experiences in employer reviews on Glassdoor. Ensuring that you have the right practices and policies in place allows you to protect employees and create to a healthy work environment, even when sex and love blossom…or fade.
Methodology: The data are based on text searches of approved Glassdoor employer reviews (both from U.S. and international contributors) from 2008 to the present. Text searches included the following words and phrases: "boyfriend"; "girlfriend"; "husband"; "wife"; "met my husband"; "met my wife"; "met my significant other"; "met my girlfriend"; "met my boyfriend"; "met my soulmate"; "found my husband"; "found my wife"; "found my significant other"; "found my girlfriend"; "found my boyfriend"; and "found my soulmate." The resulting sample consists of N = 260 employer reviews.
