Is this a bad idea?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m a senior manager at a major firm. The last few years I’ve been involved in the company’s mentor program: Senior executives work with more junior people on various aspects of their career. Sometimes it’s help with particular parts of their CV, sometimes networking inside the company, sometimes brushing up on various skills needed to get promoted, etc. Less-senior executives work with 2-3 people at a time. I’m now senior enough (director level) to be working one-on-one with VPs. One-on-one meetings are usually outside the office.

I’ve also been involved with a few social committees within the company. There is a particular young lady that is on several of the committees as well, and we’ve worked on a number of projects together. And as hard as I’ve been trying to deny it, there is an undeniable attraction - and without going in to too many details, I am certain it is mutual.

So our mentor/mentoree partners were announced this week. Guess who I’m mentoring? :smiley: :eek:

I am 99% dead certain that we can both handle this in our usual extremely professional manner.

I am also very much aware that as a manager, I religiously avoid putting myself into bad situations needlessly. Am I still crazy for wanting to get reassigned because of that 1% uncertainty? Isn’t this a needless risk for both of us?

2

Welcome to the SDMB, HereIsGone. Threads looking for advice usually go in IMHO, so I’ll move this thither for you. Also fixed your thread title – if you ever mess a thread title up, a mod will be happy to fix for you, just report the post (! in the triangle), and then in the message box specify the change needed.

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Txs Twickster; I tried the edit button but could only edit the post!

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I wouldn’t go the reassignment route, because then you’re already somewhat officially confirming some sort of issue. I would just take extreme care to not let things head in an unprofessional or personal direction. It sounds to me like you’re capable of that, otherwise you’d already be rubbing your hands together and anticipating taking it in that direction as soon as possible.

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P.S. If it seems like the attraction is irresistible, force yourself to delay it until you’re at least not in the mentor/mentee relationship any longer. Then let things happen out in the open, as appropriate.