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The ethics of personal relationships

Thursday 17 October, 2024

railway tracks winding through a rainforest

Your company has been partnering with a much smaller business on an important project, of which you are the project manager and the key person responsible for liaising with the external company.

The project has now been going for several months and in the course of your dealings with the external business, you have become close to one of their staff members. You began by socialising outside of working hours, and has now developed into a relationship, which is very much in its early stages.

You are positive that the project is not being impacted by your relationship and that both of you are acting appropriately with regard to any confidentiality or conflict of interest issues which may arise, but you are concerned that if it becomes public, your colleagues will question your ability to manage what is a very important project in terms of your career. You are also concerned that this information will make its way to your ex-partner who also works for your company and will not likely take the news well. 

What do you do?

Photo by Yoal Desurmont on Unsplash

Please share your ethical dilemmas with us - we can post them anonymously. You can email your dilemmas to  dilemma@ethics.org.au

Comments

There are 1 comments for The ethics of personal relationships.

Re: The ethics of personal relationships

Thursday 17 October, 2024
by Will
The sensitivity of such a situation mandates that no general approach will work every single time. There’s quite a bit of nuance to this dilemma. Any course of action will depend on your appetite for risk.
A risk-averse manager would realise the conflicts of interest and declare their relationship to their team. How they go about this is up to them but most likely it would be a casual one on one conversation. It might not even be necessary to share this with colleagues who they don’t share a close relationship with or those not involved in key decision-making. In doing so, the manager is being open and honest, covering themself in case of any pushback. In any conversation, it would be essential to address that they’re being careful to not breach any confidentiality as this would negatively impact the business as a whole. Whilst also proactive to share this with their ex-partner, given they already maintain a professional working relationship, it is unlikely that this would interrupt the team’s workflow. Any mal-intent would adversely impact both of their reputations and considering their role as manager, it can be safely assumed that this is an important factor to them.
If the manager chooses to withhold their relationship from the team, they play the risk of stronger pushback if the relationship is exposed. This should be considered as the situation can unfold more quickly than they realise - the partner may accidentally share their relationship with a colleague, allowing the information to spread to anyone and possibly back to the manager’s firm, all without their knowledge. This could erode trust within the relationship and team. Taking this option will boil down to their preference for privacy and the working relationship they maintain with their peers. They may not think they owe their team an explanation or even hold the view that their team shouldn’t be concerned with their personal affairs. However, as highlighted earlier, being open and honest about the situation may help to lessen any ill-feelings.

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