Promotion Brings Couple Of Problems
Q: I work at a federal agency. We have a nondiscrimination policy against homosexual people. Most people don't have a problem with this. But a question has come up about a couple who have a special relationship and who have moved back and forth around the country together. Recently, one of the couple was promoted, and she selected the other as her employee, which was a promotion. That has left management in a quandary about the situation. Morale has declined rapidly as other employees feel favoritism has occurred. Married couples who are heterosexual or other workers with a familial relationship are not allowed to enter into this supervisor-employee relationship. It doesn't seem fair that it is permitted with this relationship.</br></br>A: There is widespread consensus that romantic relationships between bosses and subordinates aren't good business practice because, as in this case, they can stir allegations of favoritism, hurt morale and productivity, and even lead to sexual harassment lawsuits if they later go awry. An American Management Association survey in 1994 found that three-quarters of corporate personnel officials said they disapproved of relationships between higher- ranking and lower-ranking employees. But because companies are cautious about treading into the area of personal relationships, only about 6 percent of the firms had policies banning them.</br></br>The rules are more clear-cut with married couples. In the federal government, there are specific nepotism rules that forbid public officials from hiring, promoting or even offering special training opportunities to a wide array of legal relations, including spouses, fathers, mothers, children, cousins, in-laws and step-family members, according to the Office of Personnel Management, the government agency that oversees personnel matters for many branches of the government.</br></br>But these rules do not apply to gay people, who cannot legally marry. Consequently, the OPM does not have any rules governing supervisors and subordinates in homosexual relationships, according to an OPM spokesman, who said he also believed it would be an awkward issue to raise at work without appearing to pry into people's personal lives.</br></br>The OPM is not unusual in not having rules addressing this issue, said Sue Meisinger, chief operating officer and executive vice president of the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria.