Spousal relationships in the workplace

dsandoval · September 2003

Are there any statistics out there relating to the number of companies allowing or disallowing spousal relationships in the workplace? I would like to know what other companies are doing about this subject. Also, does New Mexico have a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of marital status?

aingram · September 2003

We have an anti-nepotism policy in place. No relatives can be hired as of 10/1/00. All others were grandfathered in. I have a policy if you would like to see it.

Amanda

dsandoval · September 2003

I would love to view your policy. Did you have problems in the workplace when you implemented this? Did you have spouses at the time who were married to one another? If so, how did they take the change?

aingram · September 2003

We had a few employees who were resistant to change, but eventually they came around. We have several couples who were married at the time - they were granfathered in, so they had no complaints. It only really effects us when we have a great applicant who is related to a current employee. Only the General Manager has the ability to override this policy.

If you will send me your email address, I will be more than happy to send you a copy of the policy.

Amanda

dsandoval · September 2003

My email address is [email]dsandoval@bhinc.com[/email]

Thanks Amanda

marc · September 2003

Ours is very limited, allows nepotism, but does not allow a direct supervisory relationship unless approved by the Board.

Balloonman · September 2003

I always hate it when I walk in on a spousal relationship going on! 8-|
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

HRQ · September 2003

Would you email me your policy, through my Forum account? Managers are supervising family members and have been throughout the history of our company. I'm not aware of any problems with it, but that's surely because they just haven't made it to my desk yet... x;-) I'd like to grandfather existing situations as well, and prohibit direct supervision of relatives in the future.

Thanks!

cctsphr · October 2003

Amanda, I read your response and would like a copy of your policy.

[email]ccthomas@mrgmail.com[/email]

It seems there are several situations in our company that occurred before I was here and now have to clean-up.

Thanks,
Carol Thomas

gillian2 · September 2003

Not to throw water on nepotism policies - take that back, I am. Every employer who has an anti-nepotism policy has employees who are adept at hiding relationships. You just don't know that you have them.

Leslie · September 2003

Our policy is like Marc's and I agree with Gillian2. If you want a copy of a nepotism policy as opposed to anti, let me know.

dsandoval · September 2003

Hi,
Can you please send me a copy of your company's nepotism policy? I'm finding it very helpful to read through the different policies.

Thank you,
[email]dsandoval@bhinc.com[/email]

Pixie · September 2003

We have no written policy. We allow nepotism as long as there is no direct supersory relationship. The only time a spouse had to be let go is when one of our VP's was promoted to President of the company, his wife had to resign. Other than that we have quite a few married couples, employees dating and live in relationships.

deniseE · September 2003

Our company forbids personal relationships whenever we talking about a subordinate employee...and married couples cannot work under the same Vice-President. This is not a written policy, it's just understood.

When my hubby and i married, I moved to another department. We still work for the same agency, although in different functions. We're good about keeping work at work and home at home. I know that this is not always the case.

Fortunately, we work very well together and have very often attended events (he's in marketing) and represented the agency together. I guess the agency likes the two-fer deal. Otherwise they'd pay for 2 employees and 2 spouses to attend!!

I have to say that although it's nearly impossible to control personal relationships at work...a policy is worthwhile...the fallout from a failed relationship can be quite damaging to the employer...with a policy, you have some protection.

Tish · September 2003

Our company has a nepotism rule and they do a good job following it at my location anyway!

Our office manager answers directly to the general manager. She hires the GM's daughter, then hires the daughters husband to work with his wife in the same department. If that isn't enough - she then hires her own daughter into her department. Doesn't this sound so warm a cozy !!!!!.

psrcello · September 2003

In one of my former lives, I worked for a fairly large family-owned company. The retired president always loved to say "Nepotism is fine, as long as you keep it in the family!"

Where I work now, it's like a soap opera - one employee was married to another employee who fooled around and had a baby by a third employee. Divorce followed, now the former spouse is married to yet another employee, who happens to be the brother of their supervisor (supervisor's wife also reports to him). This employee is also the sister of another employee, the daughter of another employee, and the step-daughter of a third employee - dad and step-mom work as a team on the same machine/same shift. I think at last count we had at least 15 married couples, including two of them in management/administration.

Our corporate HR department even supports nepotism - the Senior VP of HR has his daughter working for him (one degree of separation from direct report). I sure wouldn't want to be the person in the middle of that one!

Lola815 · September 2003

The company I work for is family owned and operated. The only policy we have is the same as Pixie, just as long as there is no direct supervisory relationship. We have a lot of different family relationships, father and son, brother and sister, etc. and we have a lot of great employees because of it.

San Francisco · September 2003

Ditto. Our company was started 65 years ago by two brothers who fostered a family orientated environment. Virtually everybody has a family working somewhere within the chain. My niece and her daughter work in different departments of our IS. We've never experienced problems because of the many relationships out there at corporate of store land. Maybe just lucky?

Elizabeth

HRGirl · September 2003

I can't have one...

We have

3 - married couples
1 - mother and son
2 - sister and brother
1 - father in law and son in law
1 - brothers

How about trying that on! We believe in family togetherness.

Spousal relationships in the workplace

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