Dating in the workplace

When I was in college, I had the privilege to serve as an intern for Minitab, Inc.  Minitab is an incredible company, where I had the opportunity to work with great leaders who gave me my first opportunity to fall in love with the HR profession! However, it also gave me the opportunity to fall in love with my husband!!

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I was called to interview a group of software engineers that included a man named Dan, a woman named Stephanie, and a man named Steven. I recommended Stephanie for the job!!  Fortunately, I was overruled, and they hired all three of them. As fate would have it, my husband was in that group of hired engineers, and months later we began dating. Fast forward a whole bunch of years, Steven will tell you I’m the worst recruiter in the world, as I couldn’t see his incredible potential early on!

When we began dating, we were both still working for Minitab.  I must say, we made every mistake a dating couple in the workplace can make!  I was young and so very in love with this boy- that I had true blinders on to the level of professionalism I should have been displaying in the workplace!

Thankfully for us, it all worked out and I moved on to a full-time role with Nestle, and Steven left Minitab to follow me on my next career journey. However, I have not seen all relationships in the workplace work out so well—some tips:

  1. Maintain professional distance—don’t allow yourself as an individual to become “we” in the workplace
  2. Review your company policies regarding dating in the workplace and disclose your relationship
  3. Don’t over socialize at work- you should not only be going to lunch with your significant other
  4. Don’t bring “home” problems with you to the office
  5. Don’t overshare about your relationship at work—remember you both work there!

I’m obviously not opposed to dating in the workplace but ensure you do it smart.  You are impacting two careers!!

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