Kiss-Cam and the challenge of relationships at work
22 july 2025 | Dr Ruth Adams
The recent Coldplay kiss-cam moment shone a spotlight on a workplace relationship between the CEO and the Chief People Officer. The situation whilst a deeply personal issues for those concerned and their families, raised significant issues for their organisation and its leadership.
Five years ago, the HR Director publication, reported a survey by Adzuna (2020) that suggested 66% of workers in the UK have had a romantic relationship with a colleague and 28% of respondents found their current partner at work. More recent data from YouGov suggests this has significantly declined with a minimum of 15% meeting their partner at work.
Whatever the metrics, Forbes magazine (2024), suggest that over 50% of workplace relationships impact performance and 35% don’t advise their employer of the relationship.
This time last year, I asked the SEE HR Business Partners who ran our Member HR Advice Line to share information on the types of enquiries we were receiving. It surprised me when they advised we had received a flurry of enquiries seeking advice on how to manage relationships at work. This led us to develop for our Member Councils, the Managing Romantic Relationships at Work Toolkit.
The Toolkit sets out the requirements for a policy, to define protocols, to have systems for conflict resolution if things go wrong. It provides a template policy and some FAQs. All our SEE Toolkits are available on our Partner Hub and all can be downloaded and shared within your organisation. If you would like further information, line manager training or resources on managing relationships at work, please get in touch. All SEE members have a login for the Partner Hub, if you are unsure or have forgotten yours please get in touch with us: info@seemp.co.uk