Love is in the air…

With Valentine’s Day approaching, love may be in the air in your workplace. Personal and professional lives can sometimes overlap, the boundaries can become blurred with a potential impact at work.

It’s not all bad, workplace relationships can often have a positive impact! Including enhanced morale and an increase in communication, creativity, and energy. But when the “honeymoon” period is over, break-ups can cause an uncomfortable atmosphere. Not only for the former couple, but their colleagues as well can get drawn into the fall out.

The “Coldplay concert” workplace romance case involved former Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot. Their affectionate moment on the Jumbotron went viral in July 2025, leading to their investigations, suspension, and eventual resignations amid public scrutiny and debate over power dynamics, HR policies, and executive relationships. The incident highlighted risks of conflicts of interest and negative morale. Sparking discussions on necessary corporate policies for managing workplace relationships, especially between high-level leaders. 

How can you handle workplace relationships?

While some companies might prefer to deter workplace romances altogether, this is almost impossible to enforce. In our opinion, trying to put a total ban on relationships is a step too far and almost impossible to police. 

In most cases, provided those involved are professional and capable of successfully separating their work and personal life, most relationships between colleagues shouldn’t present problems for the employer. However, in reality, workplace relationships can cause tensions amongst staff and have potential legal repercussions. We see this particularly when a relationship has turned sour and issues arise that provide grounds for Employment Tribunal. Policies outlining the standards of conduct required at work limit an employer’s vicarious liability for the misconduct of an employee.

Employment tribunal cases involving office romances often centre on issues of unfair dismissal, sex discrimination, and sexual harassment, particularly when power imbalances or poor grievance handling are involved. Consensual relationships in themselves are not illegal, but related conduct or company policy breaches can lead to legal action. 

Employers should assess the implications of any romantic relationships according to the nature of their business and staffing structure and make the necessary provisions. Whilst there is no legal requirement for employers to adopt a formal office romance policy, it is sensible for most employers to impose rules around personal relationships at work, with the aim of ensuring that individual members of staff are not open to allegations of impropriety, bias, abuse of authority or conflict of interest. For example, employers may require employees to disclose relationships, particularly if it involves a director, manager and their direct report.

But what about unrequited “love” …

Unwanted comments or Valentine’s gestures could lead to extremely uncomfortable situations or even legal issues, including claims of sexual harassment. Given an employer’s positive duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, you may wish to remind staff to respect boundaries and not send colleagues unsolicited gifts, cards or invitations to meet outside of work.

We urge employers to review their Employee Handbook and ensure that all the relevant policies are in place. This should include a code of conduct, grievance procedure and rules on dignity at work and sexual harassment. Make sure updates are communicated to all employees, ensure that managers are trained and equipped to deal with matters such as harassment claims. We strongly advise that all staff are trained so that they are aware of their own obligations at work (or work-related events such as training) and understand the boundaries around banter, personal comments, gossip, physical contact, gestures and jokes at work.

To find out more about how to protect your business against claims of sexual harassment – contact us!