3 ms·
While that's true (and favouritism is absolutely one of the worst failings a manager can have), relationships at work have a potentially dangerous failure mode
by tomatocracy 7y ago
While that's true (and favouritism is absolutely one of the worst failings a manager can have), relationships at work have a potentially dangerous failure mode which friendships tend not to have - 'don't break up with me and I'll make sure you get promoted' is unfortunately much more likely than 'go to the game with me on Saturday and I'll make sure you get promoted'.
I think it's right that there should be some protection against that.
- nilkn 7y agoMoreover, people are rarely told they can't work together anymore because they're friends. But the potential fallout from a looming romantic breakup can be enough that HR may force an employee to switch departments (as happened in the article at hand). Beyond that, favoritism from romance tends to be much stronger and far less rational than favoritism from friendship. Indeed, work friendships are even often formed on the basis of a mutual recognition of competence. Romantic friendships are usually based on factors utterly unrelated to performance at work.