Um, the obvious point being that what is a rule for one person isn’t necessarily a rule for someone else?
When I started at my current company (well, two mergers ago anyway), most of the staff were in their twenties and hookups/dating were quite common - there was even a period of time when there were marriages directly related to co-worker romances. If I recall correctly, none of those relationships consisted of a couple working in the same department, and almost all were sub-supervisor level. Management (to my knowledge) never seemed to mind; I’m told Christmas parties before I started used to be a little wild sometimes, and many of the people there frequently went out drinking together as a group.
There was one couple who supervised different departments and had a relationship; over the years, as both moved up incrementally, it became apparent that their relationship may have impinged on their advancement opportunities - neither of them could be appointed to a position where they managed the other (management was well aware of their relationship). That point became moot when one of them lost his job in the (first) merger.
Now (two mergers later), there is actually a note in the handbook regarding this stuff, and the black-and-white phrasing indicates relationships between co-workers are not prohibited, except that one cannot be in a relationship with a direct report. That said, in practice management generally frowns on it. At this stage, most of us are now in our thirties and forties (if not older), and already paired off elsewhere. I’m not aware of any ongoing romances.
Oh, and we’re not in a client-facing environment, though I’m pretty sure relationships with clients would be forbidden if we were.
My company doesn’t have any such rules, beyond “don’t let the crazy stick it in you”. My current coworkers (employed by a different company) include a married couple; if the client (yet-another-company) has any rules, we haven’t been informed of them.
Retail job: coworkers can date and marry, but no one can be in a relationship with another if one will have direct authority over the other. A store manager couldn’t date anyone in the store, but a customer service manager can date any lower-level employee who is not a cashier. People do get fired for breaking the rules, though some relationships do slide under without anyone saying anything. When I started, there were unspoken rules that coworkers in the same department couldn’t date, and the head pharmacist attempted to write me up for dating another pharmacy tech. It didn’t fly, especially once I brought in the big guns from corporate to explain the rules.
If couples date or marry, they will typically work different shifts, or if one member is high enough on the ladder, transfers to other stores will take place. It’s pretty common for assistant managers, co-/store managers, head pharmacists, etc., to be married to other stores’ managers.
No dating clients, vendors, or suppliers, period. You can’t even really be friends with any client, vendor, or supplier. The company is quite strict about this one.
School: no dating supervisors or underlings in the same department. I could date other student teachers, other math and philosophy TAs, and anyone at a higher or lower level from another department, but I could not date anyone over the student mentors, nor any assistants we’re given. We are allowed to date students as long as the student is not in our class (I imagine this rule is different for lecturers and such… I’m a student as well, so I’m sure they expect students to date). My ex-fiancee was not only a student, she was one of my former students, who luckily waited until the semester was over before trying to seduce me. I was in the clear at that point but still ran the situation past my bosses and the ethics committee to make sure.
Haven’t had any contact with vendors or clients at the school… I doubt book sellers are champing at the bit to market to student teachers. (If they knew how much sway we had in developing curricula and syllabuses while working with our professors, they might start!)
No official rules in place
However
I have always been under the impression the it’s generally a bad idea to fish in the company pond
Is this a particularly American thing? I’ve never encountered it, and I’m not sure it would be legal here, or anywhere in the EU.
Seriously, stop bogarting the coffee cake!
I’m in the Air Force, so there are rules that go with that in regards to what we call “Professional and Unprofessional Relationships”. Also, since my customers are largely other military members, similar rules apply. Dating peers? OK, just keep the drama out of the workplace wherever possible (I haven’t seen it come up yet, and while both of my female coworkers are rather attractive, both have disqualifying personality traits that I might not notice if I didn’t spend eight hours a day sharing a room with them).
Dating supervisors/subordinates is a hella strict no-no. Not only can it get you in trouble at work, it gets us brought up on criminal charges (seeing as how our boss is also the government, you can see how “Office rules” and “Federal Law” tend to be the same thing).
Dating customers? Also gotta consider the Pro/Unpro relationship thing. I haven’t dealt with a customer yet at this base who fit the qualifications (nevermind the fact that, I being married, EVERYBODY on this base fails to meet either my personal, professional, or legally sanctioned qualifications for dating: ie: None of them are my wife. Adultery is punishable by law for servicemembers. Aside from that, I haven’t had a requester yet show up who was what I’d consider a qualifyingly attractive member of the female half of the species yet, so I guess that’s just the luck of the draw).
The only written rule my company has is no romantic relationships between a supervisor & subordinate. There are currently two people in my dept. dating and it’s an issue sometimes, but that’s mainly because they make out on the table in the break room and fool around in one of the bathrooms. If it weren’t for that, I doubt anyone would care.
The places that I’ve worked previously have had fairly similar positions on dating coworkers - It’s fine if there is no reporting relationship. Current place probably has the same but I’m old boring and married now so I’ve never looked.
Last place I was at had an interesting twist though - you had to reveal if the person you were dating or married to was working for a client or competitor. Not sure what impact it would have had but you were required to disclose it.
No rules here other than keep it in your pants while you are working.
There’s a prize for that?
Squirrels seem to love my ackee tree!
really…they do…
Dating among peers and supervisors/subordinates is okay unless they are in the same department. Dating customers is forbidden. I did have one 45 minute call I had to listen to where a male CSR was flirting with a female customer, though. I still get oogy feelings from that one.
And you’re having coffeecake? Share, please? 
You and I must have worked at the same organization. If there’s one thing I hate about the place I work it is the blatant double-standards. Executives are not allowed to date subordinates. This policy officially applies to all departments. However, EVPs, SVPs, and VPs in Business Development (AKA: sales) flout this and other policies with absolute impunity.
Coworkers can date, but if the relationship causes a problem for the organization, one party is either transferred or dismissed. I don’t ever recall a man being transferred or dismissed for this reason, but I could be mistaken.
Dating clients is a big no-no and, as far as I’m aware, is not done as it can impact future and ongoing business and, in certain cases, be considered a conflict of interest.
All of our policies are in writing, but they all can pretty much be condensed to: Anything that can have a net positive effect on sales is allowed; anything that doesn’t isn’t.
Dating customers is definitely forbidden where I work.
I’m a teacher (at a private language school for adults) and I’ve been dating a (former) student of mine for nine months now. I still give classes at his place of work to one of his colleagues. It’s no big deal - my boss knows, his co-workers know, I think they think it’s cute.
I’ve heard torrid tales about other things that have happened but there is no written policy.
Heh. I should hope so!
For several years, I’ve worked in hotels. In my current company, we don’t really have any rules, simply because we don’t need them - very small operation, and the only two “romantic relationships” on the property are between the owner and co-owner/manager, a married couple; and our maintenance dude is married to our laundry dude-ette.
At other hotels where I’ve worked, relationships between employees were okay, so long as one didn’t supervise the other. Dating clients was strictly forbidden.
I once worked where they made one employee quit if they got involved with another employee. The brain dead logic being you would rip them off if romantically involved with another employee, but not if you were friends or just coworkers. it never made sense. Employees dated each other until they got married at which point one of them had to go. It was a very fucked up policy.
Any other place I worked had many married or otherwise romantically involved employees that never destroyed the company. In fact many owners had both spouses working in the company.
I don’t think we have a policy here at work, but I do have some stories from some past jobs.
- First job out of college, working for a large, Fortune 500 company. The plant manager (I’ll call him “Paul”) had a secretary (“Sally”). Directly underneath Paul were 3 managers, one of whom I’ll call “Carl”. Carl and Sally were in a relationship. Both Carl and Sally said many times that their relationship outside of the company did not get in the way of their business responsibilities.
Yeah, right. Carl had an uncanny way of knowing exactly what hot-button issues to raise in a meeting with the divisional management, especially when Paul was not there. Not to mention that there were many times when Carl went on a business trip and Sally was mysteriously ill during the same time.
- I was on temporary duty at a company in Santa Cruz, California, that had a reputation for embracing certain aspects of the hedonistic environment in that part of the state. (For example, they were fairly well-known throughout the industry for the clothing-optional hot-tub and sauna that were on the company premises.) The Director of Development was married to the Software Manager, but she had kept her own last name. One day, some very straight-laced clients from Germany were visiting the company. The Director of Development made the comment, “Mary and I were taking a shower this morning and were discussing how our two companies can work together.”
The Germans’ eyebrows shot up in amazement, but nobody said anything. However, Mary realized that the Germans were no longer paying attention to anything her husband was saying. Finally, she said, “By the way, Bill and I are married, but I did not change my last name.” It was a little tense and hilarious at the same time.
As far as I can remember you’re not supposed to do it, but I can’t remember any details.
Usually the rules start after the first lawsuit.