Romance with a colleague at work is not strange; an estimate of nearly 10million workplace relationships start each year, and half of all corporate workers have been in a workplace relationship at a time in their careers.
Statistics show that among these workplace relationships, nearly a third involve relationships between an employee and a coworker who’s their boss in the organization.
Although these status differences may result in problematic power dynamics within the relationship, it’s also reasonable to assume dating one’s boss leads to more career opportunities (e.g., benefits of favoritism). At the same time, however, people with knowledge of the workplace affair might think less favorably of those who become romantically involved with a boss, resenting them for appearing to use that relationship to advance their careers.
Across two studies (feel free to skip to the conclusion for a summary) published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Suzanne Chan-Serafin and her colleagues investigated the effects of subordinate-boss workplace relationships on individuals’ career development. The researchers hypothesized that those who are romantically-involved with a superior at work would receive fewer opportunities for training and promotion by third-party evaluators.
In both studies, participants read a scenario describing a hypothetical employee at a law firm, including extensive information about that employee and a career opportunity for which that the employee was being considered. The scenarios were identical except in two key ways. First, half the participants were told that the employee was currently dating their superior; this information was absent in the other half of the scenarios. Second, the gender of the employee was manipulated such that the employ was female (e.g., “Cynthia”) in half of the scenarios and male (“Christopher”) in the other half. In other words, participants read one of four possible scenarios: (1) female employee/dating boss; (2) female employee/no mention of dating; (3) male employee/dating boss; or (4) male employee/no mention of dating.
After reading the scenarios, participants in the first study were asked how likely they were to recommend the employee for promotion. In the second study a different group of participants was asked whether they would recommend the employee for desirable career development opportunities (e.g., being sponsored by the employer for a 2-year MBA program). Across both studies, employees who were dating their bosses were less likely to be recommended for advancement opportunities. In addition, there was some evidence that this effect was exacerbated for male employees; participants were particularly harsh on men who dated their bosses.
IN CONCLUSION
In summary, although workspace relationships are quite common, the results of the studies suggest that people who date their bosses might actually be at a disadvantage when it comes to getting opportunities for advancing their careers. If you are deliberate about climbing the corporate ladder, then you probably should not get involved with your boss, or if you must, keep it secret… hush hush.. love and light, Wonder.
Perhaps you’re already in a workplace relationship and you’re wondering how best to navigate this, READ .
