You may have already seen how he or she handles stress and treats peers.
You also bring to a new relationship a shared “world,” complete with friends, colleagues, goals, and even values. Will your relationship become topic of office gossip? There’s also the matter of how your dating relationship might impact job performance.
If you become distracted by the excitement of your new romance—or distraught if that relationship goes awry—will you be less effective?
A decade ago their romance would have been expressly forbidden.
(You know the old saying about not, um, where you eat.) But as more Americans postpone marriage until their careers are established—and as hours get longer, with smartphones blurring work and play—it makes sense that attitudes are changing.
Sarah, a 30-year-old graphic designer, met Matt through a colleague at the imaging tech company where they both worked.
"I didn't really notice him at first because he had a beard, and beards weren't my thing," she says.
If indeed that’s how your company does it, that’s sex discrimination and is illegal.
(Or at least it’s illegal if your company is big enough to be covered by federal discrimination statutes — meaning that it has 15 or more employees.) As for the question of whether they need reasonable suspicion, employers don’t generally need “proof” before taking disciplinary action against employees in matter, but because the issue of romantic relations is a sticky one, I turned to employment attorney Bryan Cavanaugh to weigh in.
But is dating someone at work a fortunate turn of events or a disaster waiting to happen?