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When Dragon’s Den star Stephen Bartlett was recently chastised for using his Diary of a CEO podcast to ask whether society needs to “intervene” to prevent the growth in so-called ‘incel’ (involuntarily celibate) men, maybe he was worried about the fact that increasing numbers of UK adults are unwillingly single.
In fact, latest statistics show around 40% of adult Britons are single – either unmarried, and/or not cohabiting with anyone – meaning that this Valentine’s Day, love really won’t be in the air for more than a third of people.
But while being single has been on the rise for at least the last 25 years, with half of singletons now under the age of 40, sociologists are worried about one recent phenomena in particular that they believe is exacerbating this at a faster rate: the continued long tail of the Covid-19 pandemic which has largely cemented the practice of working-from-home.
At-work relationships: What the law says and what employers should do:
Michelle Last, employment partner, Keystone Law, says:
“An employer cannot stop their employees being in a romantic relationship. All people, including employees, have the right to a private life under the Human Rights Act 1998. But, where that “private life” actually or potentially impacts on work, an employer might also have a legitimate interest to protect its business — and can potentially take action.”
She adds: “Employers ‘are’ within their rights to seek to ban relationships at work and to require employees to disclose the fact they are in a relationship with a colleague. Whilst an employer cannot stop the relationship, it can determine how this situation is dealt with in the workplace.”
Thanks to it reducing social interaction, reducing serendipitous in-person occasions, and it reducing the ability of people to develop deeper, more meaningful connections, some believe working from home could really be ruining the long-held tradition of forming romantic partnerships at work. A decade or so ago, the workplace was ‘the place’ where many would meet their significant partners, with around 45% of people meeting a “substantial” romantic partner at work according to various datasets. But no longer it seems – this is despite the fact that Gen Z in particular (according to a study by a 2023 study by SHRM), are most ‘open’ to an office romance. It found 33% would be – which is no surprise really. Comprising places that are typically full of like-minded people, the workplace has historically been seen as a hive of similar people, with similar interests.
Do fewer romances make HR’s lives easier?
But while social commentators might be worried that on this Valentines’ Day, lots of workers will be interacting with their colleagues via Zoom-only, could the death of the office romance actually be ‘better’ news for HR professionals – people who have always found dealing with this at-work inevitability difficult?
“The problem employers have long had, is that they can’t outlaw office-relationships completely,” says Rebecca Cairney, partner in the employment, pensions and immigration team at Weightmans LLP. “But at the same time, they can cause problems when things go wrong, or spill over into performance issues.”
Working from home curtails deeper friendships, but what I also think is that it prevents ‘connection’ – and I believe this is something employers should care about. We need to feel connected at work
Legally, consensual workplace relationships are completely lawful, but they create a grey area for HR professionals when they start impacting people’s ability to perform their responsibilities and the result is that this is just an area they don’t like having to deal with.
Adding to this grey area has been recent legislation (since October 2024), around the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace – changes that now place the onus on employers to take preventative sexual harassment steps – although what exactly these might be around office relationships isn’t clear. All in all, at-work dalliances are something most HR professionals would probably wish didn’t happen, and if WFH helps this, maybe it’s a good thing. But is it?
