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Benefits February 9, 2006
Poll Finds Little Support for Office Dating Ban
February 9, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Only a small
percentage of HR professionals and employees in a recent poll
said they supported a workplace dating ban.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
Four percent of human resource (HR) professionals and 14% held this view according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management and the Wall Street Journal’s CareerJournal.com, HR.BLR.com reported.
However, 80% of HR professionals and 60% of employees oppose dating between a supervisor and a subordinate, the survey found.
The 2006 survey found that more than 70% of organizations have no policies on workplace romance, and of those that do, the vast majority discourage dating rather than forbid it. Only 9% of organizations have an outright workplace dating ban.
HR professionals may be shifting their concerns about problems stemming from workplace romance, according to the survey. In a similar poll conducted in 2001, 95% of HR professionals said they feared sexual harassment claims would stem from office romances, and 12% reported that they were concerned about retaliation or conflicts between co-workers after a relationship ended.
However, in the 2006 survey, 77% of HR professionals reported sexual harassment concerns, and 67% said they had concerns about retaliation.
The latest survey included responses from 493 HR professionals and 408 employees.