One of our managers (male) is ‘carrying on’ with one of our more junior female staff and his colleagues are getting annoyed about it and want something done as apart from anything else, he is neglecting his duties and they are both married. I told them to mind their own business and there is nothing we can do about it as they are both adults.
You are right in that you may not have to do anything about it but there are at least four good reasons why you should do so:
• Poor employee morale, weak leadership and ignoring legitimate concerns are not good practices for efficient motivated workforces
• There is scope for a sexual harassment claim if she believes that he is abusing his position of authority as a manager or decided later that that was what he was doing
• He is not working properly and is probably distracting her (or vice versa)
• If this comes to the attention of their partners there is lots of potential for incidents inside or outside of work and may result in one or both leaving your employment.
You should have a quiet word with both of them, explaining that their ‘relationship is not what they are paid to do and that their colleagues have noticed and are not comfortable with their conduct.
The Manager should also be told that he is in a position of authority and it is noticeable that he is acting less than professionally with a subordinate whilst at work, he is allowing himself to be distracted from the main focus of his job and if he is not careful he could make himself liable to future grievance claims.
