Workplace Romance: Is it Ever a Good Idea?

Workplace romance is a dating or marital relationship that involves mutually desired sexual attraction between two members of the same organization. It can be categorized into five types; compassionate, passionate, fling, mutual user and utilitarian. In recent years, dealing with workplace romance has become an added challenge for those working in Human Resource Department (HRD). This issue needs to be resolved in very professional manner.

Many research studies show that the workplace can affect an employee’s job performance and motivation to work both negatively and positively. Statistics from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that there are increases in number of such cases at the workplace, whereby 25% of U.S employees either began a new workplace romance during the COVID-19 pandemic or have continued an existing workplace romance that began prior to the pandemic.

As the culture of workplace continually evolves, it’s in the best interest of employers and Human Resource (HR) professionals to consider implementing guidance or update existing workplace romance policies. “HR professionals have a responsibility to protect employees from favoritism, retaliation and incidents of sexual harassment”, said Alex Alonso, SHRM’s chief knowledge officer.

In Malaysia, this workplace romance concept is still not discussed openly as the culture aspect is one of the factors that are a barrier to discuss this issue openly. Hence, it is the right time for HR professional to be come up with policies to handle those employees involved in workplace romance effectively.

Words by:
Selvi Narayanan
Faculty of Business, Hospitality, Accounting & Finance
MAHSA University

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