In November 2019, the board of McDonald’s fired its chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, over a consensual relationship with an employee that broke company policy. McDonald’s later sued him over other relationships he had not disclosed, and in 2021 he returned severance valued at about $105 million. In 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined him $400,000 and barred him from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 5 years. The relationship at the center of the case was legal and consensual, and the consequences came from the policy and from what he left out when asked about it.
Prevalence of Workplace Romance
In a December 2025 survey of 1,243 US workers by the Society for Human Resource Management, 47% said they were in, or had been in, a romantic relationship with a coworker. Of the workers involved, 56% had hidden at least one relationship from their team, and 45% had hidden one from human resources. Earlier SHRM surveys found lower figures, 34% in 2021 and 27% in January 2023, although the samples and question wording differed between years. In the 2021 survey, 50% of workers said they had had a crush on a coworker, and 39% said a coworker had asked them out.
In the SHRM survey from January 2023, 79% of workers who had dated a colleague had dated a peer, 18% had dated someone senior to them, and 10% had dated someone who reported to them. The last 2 groups are the ones most company policies are written to address. The same survey found that 24% of workers had a “work spouse,” a close platonic partner at work, and 20% of that group said they had developed romantic feelings for that person.
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SubscribeTypes of Company Policy
Among the human resources professionals SHRM surveyed for its 2026 report, slightly more than a third said their organization had a formal, structured policy on workplace relationships. About 30% handled each case individually, and 20% had no formal policy.
The most common restriction is a rule against relationships between a manager and someone in the manager’s reporting line. Intel had such a rule for all managers from 2011, and in June 2018 its chief executive, Brian Krzanich, resigned after an investigation found a past consensual relationship with an employee.
In 2018, Facebook’s head of employment law described a rule allowing an employee to ask a coworker out once. A refusal ended the matter, and an ambiguous reply such as “I’m busy” counted as a refusal. Google’s policy at the time allowed repeated requests and warned that a relationship creating a conflict of interest could lead to changes in work assignments or dismissal.
Partners From Outside the Company
When a company discourages dating colleagues, an employee who wants a relationship has to look for one outside the building. That search includes the same range of choices as anywhere else, from a partner met through friends to a relationship with a sugar daddy, and the employer’s policy applies to none of them.
A partner outside the company has no part in the employee’s reviews or promotions. The conflict-of-interest questions that workplace policies exist to answer never come up.
Disclosure and Consensual Relationship Agreements
Where a policy requires disclosure, the company may ask the 2 employees to sign a consensual relationship agreement. A love contract of this kind usually confirms that the relationship is voluntary and includes a conflict-of-interest clause that keeps each person out of decisions about the other’s pay and promotion. Many also require the employees to tell human resources when the relationship ends. Formal requirements are still the exception, and in SHRM’s January 2023 survey, 71% of workers said their employer did not require them to disclose a workplace relationship.
In the 2026 SHRM research, 48% of workers and 49% of human resources professionals said employees have a moral duty to disclose a relationship when it creates a conflict of interest, while 30% of the human resources professionals disagreed.
BP’s board reviewed allegations about its chief executive, Bernard Looney, in 2022, and he disclosed a small number of past relationships with colleagues at that time. In September 2023, after further allegations, he admitted he had not been fully transparent and resigned with immediate effect. His original relationships had not been found to break BP’s code of conduct. The incomplete account was what ended his tenure.
Legal Protection for Off-Duty Dating
Most US employees work at will, and no federal law protects the right to date a coworker. Some states protect lawful off-duty conduct. New York’s Labor Law Section 201-d bars employers from firing workers for legal recreational activities outside work hours and off company property.
In State v. Wal-Mart Stores, decided in 1995, a New York appeals court held that dating is not a recreational activity under Section 201-d. In 2001, a federal appeals court applied the same reading in McCavitt v. Swiss Reinsurance. Jess McCavitt, an officer at the company, was dismissed after a fellow officer told human resources that the 2 were dating. Both were unmarried, the relationship took place outside work hours, and the company had no policy against it, yet his claim under Section 201-d still failed. Under that statute, breaking a no-dating policy in New York gives an employee no claim.
Supervisor Relationships and Harassment Risk
A relationship between a manager and a direct report creates risks that a relationship between peers does not. The employee with less power may find it hard to refuse or to end the relationship, and a breakup can lead to a harassment claim or a retaliation claim if the junior employee’s work suffers afterward. Policies focus on this pairing for that reason. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 7,732 charges alleging sexual harassment in fiscal year 2023, up from 6,201 the year before and the highest number in 12 years.
An employee who starts a relationship with a manager should read the written policy and disclose the relationship when the policy requires it. Where a change of reporting line is available, it removes the conflict of interest altogether. The relationship can continue after those steps, and the employee’s record shows that the rules were followed from the start.
Coworker Comfort in 2026
Colleagues’ views matter under a restrictive policy, because a hidden relationship can reach human resources through someone else. BP’s board first heard about Bernard Looney’s relationships from an anonymous source, and the written policy was the standard the board applied once it knew. A hidden relationship under a restrictive policy depends on the tolerance of coworkers, and that tolerance has fallen. In SHRM’s 2025 survey, 81% of US workers said they were comfortable with colleagues dating each other. In the December 2025 survey, the figure was 57%, which leaves 43% of coworkers uncomfortable.
