Drones, Office Romance, & Snow?

Here’s your Valentine’s Day quiz: What do drones, office romance, and the recent east coast snowstorm have in common? Slippery slopes, my friends, they all create slippery slopes.

These days we include relationship policies in our Employee Handbooks because the dating policies of old haven’t kept up with the challenges presented by personal relationships in the workplace. Besides, according to my granddaughter, “nobody dates anymore, they just hang out”. OK then.

The line between personal and business issues is fast fading as the younger generations come into the workforce. A recent industry white paper tried to explain to me that the Nexters can’t even conceive of what we Boomers call “the work-life balance” because they see no boundaries delineating what needs to be balanced. Hence the blank stare when we tell some first-time employees that, no, they can’t keep up their Facebook page while they’re on the clock. Or shop, or text their friends, or fight with their girlfriend who works in the next cubicle. We managers are going to have to figure out a way to supervise our hourly employees without policing them every minute.

At a place I used to work there were two employees who had lived together for 7 years. I didn’t know. We sat in meetings together and I never guessed. Even after I knew and I tried to see signs of personal stuff coming in, I couldn’t. Did they govern their actions in order to comply with the dating policy that was in force at the time? I wish I’d asked them. My sense was they just knew that the personal belonged at home, not at the office.

I wouldn’t mind asking San Luis Obispo, CA county supervisor Gibson and his assistant if their seemingly scrupulous behavior was dictated by some policy or their knowledge that once found out their every action would fall under rabid scrutiny from all corners. According to county counsel, they violated no policy or regulation.

And there’s the rub. In the workplace they are blameless because they broke no rules. In their personal lives it is another question, but that’s none of our business. Now add the public eye, which, thanks to Mr. Gibson’s elected office, makes his actions fodder for feedback and opinions swarm.

Somewhere along the line, the appearance of wrong doing must be considered. That’s often why we have policies restricting moonlighting and acceptance of gifts and supervising your sweetheart: because even if you didn’t do anything wrong, the company can be weakened in myriad ways by the appearance that you did.

But, oh, talk about a slippery slope: do we make rules that potentially limit our pool of creative talent because someone might do something that might appear to be harmful? Do we restrict workplace relationships and dictate work-life balance in order to control appearances? This Valentine’s Day column is dedicated to Supervisor Gibson and his assistant, with thanks for providing us yet another reminder that the field of human resources is about a lot more than policies.

{This post marks a return to the wonderful world of blogging for Betsey. Comments are always welcome.}