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By Steve Brearton
Illustration: Seth
Labour relations
The office may still be one of the best places to meet your romantic partner, but it’s not always wine and roses.
1 Rank of “never date down. Don’t get romantic with a subordinate” in a list of office romance rules by US public relations consultant Liz Ryan.
1 in 5 Estimated number of Canadian businesses with workplace-romance policies, including “consensual relationship” contracts limiting company liability.
23 Percentage of Canadian workers who admitted to having an office romance in a 2002
survey of workplace relationships.
28 Percentage of Canadian workers in the same 2002 study who said they would date their boss to advance their careers.
43 Percentage of Canadian employees who find office romances acceptable, according to a 2004 Monster.ca survey; 76% of Spaniards and 30% of Americans agreed with the practice.
66 Percentage of office romances likely to end in marriage over the past five years, according to a 2001 poll of human resource managers.
90 Percentage of male workers who admitted in a 2002 survey they would kiss certain colleagues under the mistletoe at a Christmas party; 86% of female employees agreed.
13,711 Amount in US dollars a truck driver was awarded in a disability claim following a motor accident occurring while he was having sex with a co-worker. An Oklahoma court found he was entitled to workers’ compensation as he was working at the time of the collision.
1994 Year Canadian courts found that having an office relationship in itself was not grounds for firing. That year a former employee successfully sued a Kitchener, Ont., company for wrongful dismissal and was awarded a year’s salary.
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