Navigating Workplace Romances: IRiQ’s Guide for Business Owners and Managers

| February 10, 2026

Workplace romances are an inevitable reality of modern Australian business. Statistics suggest 30-50% of workers have, at one time, been in a romantic relationship with a colleague. Further, over 20% of married couples have met through the workplace.

When adults spend significant portions of their lives together in professional settings, personal relationships naturally develop. Whilst some workplace relationships proceed without incident, others create substantial risks that can destabilise operations, compromise workplace culture, damage professional relationships, and expose organisations to significant legal liability.

In the lead up to Valentine’s Day, when romance is in the air for many, it is timely to be across the risks workplace romances can create, and steps you can take to mitigate risk.

The Critical Foundation: Establishing a Comprehensive Code of Conduct

The complexities arising from workplace romances extend far beyond the immediate parties involved. These relationships can create perceived or actual conflicts of interest, allegations of favouritism, claims of sexual harassment (usually when the relationship breaks down), uncomfortable working environments for colleagues, and breakdowns in professional boundaries that affect team dynamics and productivity.  

Failing to address workplace relationships proactively represents a significant management failure that can result in costly unfair dismissal claims, adverse action proceedings, discrimination complaints, workplace investigation costs, and reputational damage that affects recruitment and retention. This can be multiplied when romantic relationships involve power imbalances, such as relationships between managers and their direct reports. 

The question is not whether your organisation will face workplace relationship issues, but rather how effectively you will manage them when they inevitably arise. 

A well-drafted Code of Conduct (Code) serves as the cornerstone of effective workplace relationship management. A well written Code will: 

• Establishes the baseline expectations for professional behaviour,  

• Create clear boundaries that all employees must respect,  

• Provides management with legitimate grounds for intervention when problems arise, and  

• Demonstrate to courts and tribunals (in the event of a claim) that your organisation takes workplace conduct seriously and has implemented reasonable steps to prevent workplace harm.

Any Code (or similar conduct expectation policy) must explicitly address the following as a minimum: 

1. A requirement for the disclosure of romantic relationships that could create actual or perceived conflicts of interest.
   
   While relationships occur, where it does occur between a staff member and their direct report, for example, management interactions need to be treated carefully, it will not be appropriate for the manager/supervisor in the above example to be responsible for actioning disciplinary action, or to conduct the investigation into a complaint about the staff member.  
   
   The disclosure of a relationship will allow management to address the actual or perceived conflict of interest. Using the above example, it would be appropriate for management to change the reporting line.  

2. Expectations regarding professional behaviour regardless of personal relationships.
   
   A Code needs to set out conduct expectations for all staff, regardless of whether they are in a romantic workplace relationship or not. This is important for ensuring everyone in your workplace behaves in an appropriate and safe manner.  Essentially, while at work, employers need everyone is focussed on work, with romantic behaviour left to outside of work hours.   

3. Clearly articulated consequences for breaching workplace conduct expectations.  

The Imperative for Policy Implementation

Implementing a Code is not optional. It represents a fundamental duty of care to your workforce and a basic risk management necessity.  

Without documented policies, such as a Code, employers will find they cannot demonstrate that employees had fair warning before disciplinary action was taken. In the event of termination of employment, the last thing an employer wants to hear is a former employee saying, as part of their Unfair Dismissal claim before the Fair Work Commission, that they did not know they could not behave in the way they did, because there was no policy in place, and they weren’t told.  

It’s fair to say that you cannot hold a person accountable to something they did not know they should not be doing. 

What about common sense though?  

Good question, however common sense is not always common, so why take the risk? 

The cost of implementing workplace policies is minimal compared to the potential cost of defending unfair dismissal claims, managing workplace investigations into harassment allegations, addressing discrimination complaints arising from perceived favouritism, and dealing with the operational disruption caused by unmanaged workplace relationship conflicts.  

New and existing policies must be clearly understood by employees. Implementation steps may include, but are not limited to: 

• All of staff training session to discuss the policy/policies, expectations within them and the consequences of non compliance; 

• Keeping a record of the training where the employee signs (at the end of the training) that they attended; 

• Involving management in all education activities – nothing shows the seriousness of a matter than leading from the top; 

• Publishing the policy/policies in other languages to ensure employees who do not speak English as their first language can understand them; 

• Posting the policy/policies on an intranet, and/or in hard copy in the staff lunchroom; 

• Regularly refreshing employees on the policy/policies – at least every 12 months, and through toolbox or other staff discussions; and 

• Ensuring all new staff are provided with the time to read and review policies as part of their induction and transition to office.

Legal Principles in Employment Law

Australian courts and tribunals have developed clear principles regarding how employers should manage workplace conduct issues, irrespective of workplace relationships states. The Fair Work Commission consistently emphasises the importance of procedural fairness, requiring that: 

• Employees receive clear notice of expected standards through properly drafted and communicated policies,  

• Employees have a fair opportunity to respond to allegations before disciplinary action is taken,  

• Investigations that are thorough, impartial, and properly documented, and  

• Disciplinary responses that are proportionate to the established misconduct.

The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) prohibits discrimination on the basis of marital status or pregnancy, requiring careful consideration when managing couples who work together. Similarly, workplace relationship policies must be drafted and applied in ways that do not indirectly discriminate against employees based on protected attributes.  

Blanket prohibitions on all workplace relationships may be unreasonable, and may certainly not be practical. By banning workplace romances, the parties will go underground and keep it secret, thereby creating a more risky environment. 

Employee Privacy

As mentioned, your Code should require employees to disclose romantic or intimate relationships to human resources or senior management when the relationship creates or could reasonably be perceived to create a conflict of interest.  

The disclosure process must protect employee privacy whilst providing management with necessary information to assess and manage conflicts. Establish a confidential reporting mechanism where employees can disclose relationships to a designated human resources officer, create a standardised assessment process for evaluating whether disclosed relationships create manageable conflicts, and develop clear procedures for restructuring reporting lines or work arrangements when conflicts are identified. 

Proactive Management as Risk Mitigation

Workplace romances will continue to occur regardless of policies or management preferences. The distinguishing factor between organisations that effectively manage these inevitable situations and those that face costly legal proceedings and workplace disruption is proactive policy implementation, consistent enforcement, and fair process when issues arise. 

IRiQ Law supports employers with practical, legally sound workplace frameworks, including Codes of Conduct, relationship disclosure processes, and manager training. If you would like help reviewing your policies or accessing ongoing HR support, explore our HR Retainer services or contact our team to discuss what’s right for your workplace.