Office Entanglements and Risk Management

The greatest weakness organisations face is when supervisors are engaged in illicit affairs with subordinates! For risk professionals its tricky how to find this out—this is why even in risk registers this area does not often appear. It is difficult to rely on hearsay as one needs evidence. In most cases the evidence is hidden as parties engage in entanglements in privacy.

However there is an unwritten rule of matters of the heart –as soon as parties engage themselves in between the sheets, respect is instantly lost!

This is how third parties get wind of an affair between parties. A boss commanding respect by everyone at a company may have that one subordinate with little respect and everyone is bound to find out.

What are the implications of office romance?

• As soon as the rest of the employees find out—respect is lost by everyone.
• Zimbabwe is still a culturally sensitive country and some will take matters into their own hands and report. If they fail to report within, they are bound to engage tabloids, use social media or other platforms.
• If the boss is a man, then his wife is bound to find out,
• If the boss is dating a married woman, then the husband of the woman is bound to find out,
• Company secrets are as good as gone once bosses engage in illicit workplace affairs,
• Internal controls are the first victim due to office romance. The fastest way to losses is office entanglements,
• Poor morale is inevitable once other employees find out that hard work is not enough for promotion and benefits,
• If a supervisor engages is a couple of affairs, the company becomes a jungle as the affected parties can start open fights or even creating tag teams fighting each other,

Therefore the greatest risk facing any business entity if office romance!

Whereas at established companies, many fear human resources policies sanctions and hide affairs, for small businesses, founders can openly engage in affairs fearing no one,

This means competitors and other employees can quickly spread word of shenanigans to others,

Once you get entangled to a junior as an entrepreneur, that junior is instantly elevated to the position of business partner.

• You now need to pay the junior extra salary and benefits,
• You also need to share profits,
• You also need to factor in losses due to the junior stealing or misusing resources,
• You face reputational losses when things go sour or even law suits,

As soon as you put on clothes after sleeping with a junior, just remember the business is gone! All the hard work flies through the window….

So where does the problem starts from?

Researchers say during recruitment, bosses especially men recruit those they like and by default those they are attracted to! Bosses in most cases have final say of who they hire and this is the source of problems from day 1.

Managing office entanglements

• Companies should have solid policies for protection against losses from office entanglements,
• There should be regular awareness programmes of office romance risks,
• There should be internal mechanisms for managing reported cases of office romance,
• Failure of reporting internally will lead to information leaking outside where its impossible to control and comes with heavy costs,
• Conduct anonymous surveys (audits) where employees report whether they suspect there are illicit affairs at the company and present the reports at selected intervals. This can be used as a deterrent to involved parties. If 90% employees suspect there is office romance then there is need to take corrective action. This is a recommendation auditors can factor in reports to management especially for big companies that stand to lose out big by sex scandals.

As for start-up, just remember you are on your own and all the work can be up in smoke due to entanglement with a subordinate and in some cases can be with clients. So tread carefully in this area. Read more about ethics and practise them, for unethical practices=heavy losses!