The first time I heard of the no-romance policy at a workplace, I was confused. I thought to myself, what kind of employer would not encourage their employees to love each other and foster lasting relationships and what employer would judge or restrict the most powerful emotion of human nature.
But as I grew older, I realized that it is much better to work in a place with no office romance as the drama that follows when one is in love is almost uncontrollable.
Love is the only thing that can turn an animal into a coward, the emotion that stands out and cannot be hidden no matter what you try.
An emotion that cannot be controlled and has no boundaries what so ever. Love can be granted as a reward and one can invite it – but it almost impossible to turn it off.
Love cannot be bought-all other things pertaining sexual encounters with whips, fingers, mouths are all for sale- but the one thing that cannot be bought no matter what, is true love.
The wonderfully acted movie – ‘Indecent Proposal‘ is a good example of what love can and cannot do.
Love can motivate people to enormous journeys and push them to see things they had previously thought were impossible. That feeling one gets when they are around someone they feel totally comfortable with cannot be compared to any material gift. The sweating, the speechlessness the shakes are all involuntary.
Love is the one emotion that can make one go crazy and without it one can simply wither away and die.
On the other hand, love can confuse one into a state of no comprehensive understanding and it is because of how powerful this feeling is that love in itself has started wars all over the world.
Now, when you get this in the work place and the relationship does not end up in a solid marriage it can really disrupt work flow and performance. It will be very hard to keep the relationship under the radar as it is obvious when two people have feelings for each other.
It gets trickier when the two handling the office romance are good employees- the organization might be looking at losing two good workers.
Understanding that company policy of not having affairs is only put in place to protect the company’s integrity and maintain a nice working environment.
One can have discreet sexual encounters, but make sure that they remain just that- discreet. And if you like someone else and cannot live with the lie- say sorry and look for ways to start something else or move on.
Mixing love, business and work is not a good recipe and it can get really messy. Some people might take advantage of the feeling and take it to another bad level by trying to use one for monetary gain or slander.
Love and office romance contribute to a huge percentage of the number of sexual harassment law suits that have been recorded by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in America and to curb this, most organizations and companies are strict on the no romance policy in the workplace.
Should it get to the part where you absolutely cannot live without your colleague than lay out some rules between the two of you that you will keep in the closet for as long as you work there.
See each other way past office hours; do not have the same time schedules, be as discreet as possible, unless of course you plan on getting married.
Remember office gossip gets juicier once people know that some individuals are carrying out a romance and it can get out of hand when employees sit at lunch time to discuss other employees.
It is bad for business and is very bad for employee morale. According to ITV.com, “what is love” was the most searched phrase in Google in 2012-and if this is true, then it just goes to show how many are confused from love itself.
I know I am completely scared of it – so if you do not mind being called a robot at work, but do your job well – then keep off the office romance. You would rather keep off the drama, than invite it. I call that self-preservation.