Dealing with the office affair

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Dear Joan:
How should office employees deal with an office affair? I certainly would appreciate your thoughts as to why upper management would allow this to go on, and why wouldn't one of the two parties have enough pride to leave?

Without boring you with the details, the situation involved an insurance department of 16 women. The department was structured with a manager with three coordinators, one of whom is involved with the manager and now pregnant. Why should honest, everyday working people have to put up with this, and why, as another coordinator, should I have to compete with this?

My solution was to resign and move on because he was unable to make a decision without consulting her and the situation just continued to get worse. This manager was with the company less than one year. Does this just all boil down to "who you know?"

Obviously, who you "know" does not refer to the biblical sense!

Answer:
It's understandable that you chose to resign and move to another opportunity. This situation must have been highly stressful for you and others within the department.

Although it's too late to undo your resignation, it seems a shame that a good employee left while an unacceptable relationship presumably continues to destroy the morale and productivity of the department.

Several questions come to mind for those employees left in the department:

·        Is this relationship affecting your work? How?

·        Are you certain upper management is aware of this problem?

·        Is the affair an irrefutable fact?

·        Do you all share the same negative perception of the situation?

Perhaps the natural course of events will take care of the problem. If you like your jobs, sit tight for awhile.

Because the pregnancy will soon be evident to all, the office grapevine is bound to telegraph the news all over the company. At this point, it will become very embarrassing for the two individuals involved. If upper management doesn’t know now, it soon will. Indiscretions of this magnitude are rarely ignored, particularly when they affect the quantity and quality of work.

However, if time passes and upper management takes no action, while productivity and morale continue to plummet, a move on the part of the employees will become necessary. The important thing to consider is the impact the manager's and coordinators' reporting relationship has on the department's ability to function. When a relationship creates an obstacle others must work around, it's time to make a change.

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