When I was younger, I saw no problem with workplace romances.  I mean, how many romance novels are based on secretaries marrying their bosses?  It does sound nice.  Sometimes, it actually works.

After years of looking back over things, I do have a little different perspective.  There are at least five possible problems that can surface with close relations in the workplace.  There might be more.

1. The obvious one.  It has two edges.  A person might show favoritism to a subordinate.  I have seen this firsthand and it can get ugly.  It can become a fast morale problem.  On the other hand, to keep from showing favoritism, the person might be rougher on the favored one.  That is almost as bad.  It can hold back a person who deserves credit and advancement.
2. While a relationship is great today, it might turn sour overnight.  It can cause a disruption and might ever bring things to a stop in the environment.  Many times, it means that one or the other; or both might have to leave.
3. Fraternization during business can be slow progress and can be distracting, throughout the office.  Anyone who has been around office life very long knows exactly what I mean.  While the couple is supposed to be working, they just might be doing other things.
4. It can result in love triangles.  Now really.  Is this what a manager wants in his office…outbreaks in the office of one person fighting another over the desires of the third.  This can really get bad if more than three are involved.
5. One or the other or both might be married.  Now that’s a disaster waiting to happen.  Need I explain?

I am far from being an expert in the subject.  However, I have seen many instances of friction in the workplace without the romances.  There is competition: anger because the other guy was promoted; so and so got the weekend off and I had to work; and so on.  There is no need inviting more problems.

It is the small list of what managers have to cope with continually.  I have seen it and I’m sure anyone that has had a job for a while has seen it too.

Of course, this is something to be decided by the leadership of each business.  If the management can deal with, or if they think they must deal the problems, it is up to them.

However, it becomes an entirely different problem with the “office manager” is a captain and the commanding officer of a platoon.  Guess what, if the battle is raging and shells are landing all around, the last thing that captain is going to want to deal with is a love triangle.

It does happen.  It is the natural way of things.  You get men and women in the same fox hole and the commanding officer is going to have problems.  Worse yet, is if one of the people in the relationship is the captain.  You talk about fireworks.  You talk about moral and morale problems.  Guess what?  It is going to shred discipline.  A well oiled company can be torn asunder just almost instantly.  I mean, if you’re a corporal and you are competing with the attractive corporal who is having an affair with the captain….

It is why I don’t like women in combat.  I think most of those who have seen combat firsthand will agree with me.  However, it seems those experts, the ones who have never been shot at know better.  That is the way they are trying to run these armed forces and they are weaker because of it.  It is difficult to prove, of course because this country has not been in a really serious war in decades.  The closest thing to it was Iraq, but considering the American superiority, it can hardly be classified as a serious war.

True.  Some of our guys were killed, but compared to Iraq’s losses???  It was not much more than a training exercise, one in which we were able to test our equipment and tactics.

However, it doesn’t stop there.  What if all those in your combat company are men.  Then, right in the middle of everything, one of your men comes in and complains that the other man in his fox hole keeps hitting on him.

Guess what?  When you allow homosexuals on the font lines, you get the same problems as with women, only worse.  If I were a CO of a company, I certainly wouldn’t want those kinds of problems while I’m actually trying to fight a war.

As a S/Sgt in the Marines, I never had to deal with anything like that, thankfully.  It was really difficult enough.  Every one of the men I was in charge of wanted to be treated fairly.  Being human as they were, some wanted to be treated more fairly than others.

Thank goodness, I never had to deal with romances, triangles or homosexuals.  I think I would have asked for a demotion to private.  I’d let others have to deal with that kind of thing, thank you.

One more, important thing to remember.  When you have problems in the office, you can fire those involved.  When you are in a battle and the enemy is closing on your position, you’re stuck with what you have.  There’s no firing anyone.  Indeed, in situations like that, a leader just might be forced to use a little physical discipline to snap those soldiers into shape.  It does happen, though maybe not with the women.