Love is in the air and it could cause you a problem

From plummeting performance to unnecessary gossip, workplace romances could potentially cause franchisors a lot of headaches. But whether business leaders like it or not, few precautions can prevent employees from having a fling. “The mature attitude is to accept that people will have relationships in the workplace,” says David Southall, employment law consultant at ELAS Group, the business support firm. The numbers certainly back him up as 57% of workers have had a fling with a colleague, according to research by Vault, the company-review and ratings agency. However, staff members being affectionate towards each other doesn’t have to be a bad thing. “It should be all right if everyone is grownup about it,” says Southall. “Mostly people conduct themselves professionally at work and save the romance for after hours or during their lunch breaks. But it’s when it interrupts the natural smooth running of the business that it becomes an issue.”

One case he consulted on in particular reminds him of how office romances can go horribly wrong. “It was a junior female member of staff who had an affair with a male manager,” Southall says. The affair didn’t end well for the company. Shortly after they broke up, the company went through a restructuring, leaving a lot of employees without a job. Feeling that she had been sacked because of her romance with her boss and not because it was the best thing for the company, she threatened to drag the firm before an employment tribunal. “It was eventually settled out of court,” says Southall. “Not because the firm accepted any liability but because it” didn’t want to air its dirty laundry in public and it didn’t want to embarrass the married manager.” For franchisors, the story should act as a cautionary tale that they need to take office romances seriously or risk facing the consequences.

And while the fallout may not always be as extreme, relationships between co-workers could still impair business performance. “Basically, when two people are romantically involved they may spend too much time emailing, texting, WhatsApping or chatting around the water cooler and not doing their jobs,” says Southall. And it’s not just the happy couple who may experience a dip in their results. “A manager could for instance let the entire team go early just because he or she wants to go on a date,” says Southall.

Even though few employees would say no to going home early, not all co-workers will be equally thrilled about a blossoming office romance. “Unfortunately it’s human nature for people to make negative assumptions about a person who’s in a relationship with someone at work,” says Sandy Middleton, senior HR manager at Racepoint Global, the PR agency. For instance, a study published in the Western Journal of Communication found that most workers frown upon office romances. The negative impact could be particularly difficult if one person in the relationship is more senior than the other. “Colleagues may believe that there is favouritism,” says Middleton. “Perhaps they think they get allocated better jobs or tasks, receive better salary increases or bonuses or have access to confidential information about the business or other staff.”