When a Supervisor Dates Their Employee, It’s a Conflict of Interest in Business and at Work

Aside from the automatic sexual harassment liability risk to an employer when a supervisor dates and then breaks up with a subordinate employee at work (think about your own dating experience: when a dating relationship ends, resentment and hostility are almost always the rule; and when the supervisor openly resents their ex-dating partner who is also their employee, that’s where the instantaneous sexual harassment compliance liability for both the supervisor and their employer begins and ends): when a supervisor decides to date a subordinate employee, it’s also an automatic conflict of interest.

I’ve seen it play out both ways: either the supervisor favors their significant other / employee with regard to key employment transactions (promotions, compensation increases, etc.); or the supervisor is overly harsh to their significant other with regard to key employment and interpersonal transactions, in an effort to prove that there’s no conflict of interest – which instead creates a hostile work environment literally and from a compliance standpoint for everyone.

Neither strategy works; in the above scenario, employee parity is impossible, everyone eventually loses, and employee morale, retention and recruitment always suffers. And if you want to remedy the situation by reassignment, it’s the supervisor that must be moved, not the employee.

How do you ensure that your significant-other relationships don’t create a conflict of interest, in business and at work?