Sex and Guns: Challenges for Employers

Making the news here in the SE US, Georgia in particular, has been the story of an office romance that has caused the employer difficult times. Office romances have always been problematic for employers. This one, involving the head of The Department of Transportation and the Chairman of the Board that oversees the DOT, has ended poorly, with the DOT being the big loser. The Chairman resigned last week because of the relationship and the Head of the DOT has a hearing today on whether she should retain her position. So two talented people may be off the job and the DOT will be scrambling. They violated agency policy which prohibits that type of personal relationship.

Office romances cause employers headaches. The company may try to prohibit them but they can prevent them. After all people who work together all day long may have a tendency to form those relationships. Some are single, some are not. Some of these relationships are successful, many are not. The employer ends up with the burden of monitoring these relationships because of the liabiltiy that failed relationships may bring in the area of sexual harassment. You even have to monitor people around the couple in question because they may find their behavior to create a hostile environment. This is particularly the case when the pair involved are in a "superior-subordinate" relationship as in the DOT case. So what needs to be done? Ban them? Fire people involved? Require one to quit? (Have to be careful here about sexual discrimination.) Give me some feedback. Take the poll to the left.

So much for the sex part of today's post. Now to the guns post. Florida just passed and signed into law a gun rights law that allows employees to carry guns in their cars. Employers cannot prohibit it. Georgia has passed a similar law, though it has not yet been signed into law. Employers are encouraging the Governor to veto this law. The Georgia law does have some allowance for prohibiting guns on company property as long as the employer owns the parking lot. To see a good post on the Florida law read Kris Dunn's post at HR Capitalist entitled Dealing With Employees Who Are "Strapped" - Guns in Cars...