Human Resource Blog

Office Dating and Employee Privacy Rights

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We’re worried about violating privacy laws if we try to enforce our no dating policy in the Texas firm we have. How can we balance these concerns with our need to enforce our policies?

Keep in mind that when you have a company that’s private, you can establish any policies that you would like, including policies about office dating that can either allow it, allow it in part, or not allow it at all, depending on your company vision. A policy that governs inter-office relationships can certainly be seen as a policy that is in effect to protect all of your employees from fairness issues, and not just to determine who can date whom. Also, a policy about inter-office dating can very well help your company avoid a sexual harassment law suit, should members of your staff date and then break up down the road.

The key to ensuring that your dating policy does not come across as a unfair violation of your employees’ personal rights is to communicate with your employees. It’s important that you explain to them that the policy is dedicated to ensuring that your employees has a happy, fair, and safe work environment, free from the hassles of dating relationships, the jealousies that may accompany relationships, and the unfairness that couple also result.

You also want to ensure that by banning or putting a policy on your relationships, you are ensuring that no employee will claim in the future that the relationship was not consensual. As such, even if you allow inter office dating, you may want to have your employees sign a waiver that states that they are in th relationship of their own choice and will not hold the company accountable for the relationship.

Make sure that you apply the policy consistently throughout the company and do not allow some people to break the rules and others to follow them. Communicate the policy clearly and be sure to discipline when needed and where appropriate; your entire staff will recognize your adherence to the policy and thank you for it.