Help! Can anyone tell me what the problems are, if any, allowing workplace relationships? Other banks that I have worked at have discouraged it. If the employees ended up getting married, either one was asked to leave, or they were required to work in different departmens. If you would let me know your opionions that would be great, or if you know where I could find something in writing that says this is not good practice that would be the greatest. Thanks.

In most places this is written into the policy (that it's not permissible.) Obviously, it would be difficult for a spouse to objectively manage their partner; even if they could do it, anything that created the appearance of subjective managing could cause problems. In most cases it's just not a good idea.

From an audit standpoint there may be internal control issues if the husband and/or wife are in a position to manipulate bank records.

This can vary greatly depending on the size and complexity of the organization. Personally, I hav enever seen a bank that allows related persons to work in the same department, or allows on employee to supervise a relative. Some banks impose an outright one-per-family limit on employment bankwide, others only prohibit the hiring of relatives of certain staff members (security, audit, and hr, for example).

As for workplace relationships that become family relationships, the common practice is to transfer or (if necessary) terminate one staff member to enforce compliance with the policy.

You don't say if the relationship existed before they became employees, or if the relationship began after both were employed. We don't hire immediate relatives. However, we've had situations where employees began relationships right under our noses and we found out about it after it was fullblown. One such relationship started when we sent both employees to a seminar together. Our legal department made it clear that we can't tell employees what to do in their spare time and as long as their relationship didn't spill over into the workplace, we had to leave it alone. Obviously we could insure one didn't supervise the other, but that was the extent of it. One such situation got very messy when the spouse of one of the employees blamed our company for the relationship. This resulted in threats to the lives of members of the management team and the employee involved with the spouse. Police were alerted, restraining orders were issued against the spouse preventing access to our buildings. Security was provided for the employees as they left the building. One employee eventually resigned and left the area. None of this can be avoided with a policy that doesn't allow relatives to be employed. These can be serious situations.

we don't hire immediate realtives either, it is in our policy (what I still can't figure out is how the CEOs son is president???)

In a past life, one bank required co-workers in the same department, or management from any dept. to notify the HR officer if a relationship was in the works (even for a first date). HR would contact the appropriate areas to ensure no collusion issues, etc. If the relationship developed into marriage, they would not be allowed to work in the same department, or where duties may cross (wire room and mortgage, for example). If notice was not given prior to the marriage, one employee was required to resign.

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we don't hire immediate realtives either, it is in our policy (what I still can't figure out is how the CEOs son is president???)

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This is often the case in smaller banks where the family has substantial share holdings.

In my past job at a CU the president and VP were hubby and wife. It was awful, they fought constantly and the atmosphere was awful. He would get drunk and hit on the tellers at the office parties, she would get mad at the tellers and she was their direct supervisor!! Good thing nobody has gotten an attorney involved yet!