'Caring' management
I met my future husband when I was an apprentice in the same company as he. After we announced we were an item, I was called into the office by HR. Not for a friendly congratulations, but instead a piece of advice:
"You should get down the doctors and get yourself some contraception."

W.T.F.

I was quite shy back then (not like now!) so I said nothing, but turned bright red. I couldn't believe she'd said that!

***

I found out later that the directors had wanted to fire me, because of our relationship! But bless him, hubby stood up for me and said if one of us had to go, it would be him and uttered those fantastic words 'Unfair Dismissal'.

We weren't allowed to work with each other in case we were 'inapproriate' (they really thought a lot of us), except when it suited them for emergency jobs that cropped up. Strange that.

***

Months later after the above HR lady had been sacked, I ended up in dreaded Sales. I hated it, not to mention the manager there was a bitch and a slapper that I absolutely loathed.
Not wanting to cause a scene, I simply did my work and kept my head down.
She approached me after a few days and asked me if I was alright. I said yes, and then she said that I hadn't been really talking that much. I shrugged. She said "But we want to talk with you."
"I'm not a very nice person to talk to." I replied, trying to get rid of her.

Ten minutes later, I'm in HR with the HR woman and her:
"Why do you not think you're a nice person?"
"Do you hate yourself?"
"Do you not get on with your mother?"
Fuck, it was like goint to a Psychiatrist. I said nothing and just stared at the table. It was awful.

I was so glad when I left, which I did because I was kept in the workshop all the time instead of being sent out to site. When I called a meeting about it I asked to be made up to an engineer or to be let out on site for training, I was point blanked refused. And yet they were still suprised when I then slapped down my letter of resignation.

Bastards, the lot of 'em.
( VandenPlas can't think of anything clever - no change there!, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:41, 8 replies)

A lot of companies have rules banning people having romantic relationships.
And it is commonly a sackable offence. Nothing unfair about it, unless they made up the rule after you told them about your relationship and tried to implement it retroactively.
(Vlad the Inhaler forgot his password, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:20, closed)

Good job they don't have that rule here
Just looking around me for examples, I've boffed two girls from work, one of whom (although she has now left) has gone out with two other blokes and copped off with a third, one of my staff is now living with a bloke from IT, a guy across the room from me once went out with somebody from HR, a guy I can just see next door used to go out with one of his team, a couple upstairs got married after meeting at work... and that's just the ones I know about in my office.

Christmas parties used to be a real meat market, while we still had them.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:29, closed)

Are you sure
you're not a character in some work-based soap opera?
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 17:01, closed)

Nope
It just sounds like he works for HMRC.
(Draco Rattus ate all the pies on, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 20:56, closed)

Nothing
in the contract or handbook about romantic relationships, besides which they had several couples (married and otherwise) already working there.
( VandenPlas can't think of anything clever - no change there!, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:38, closed)

In situations like that the answer should always be offered very calmly and sincerely
and depict extreme tales of ultraviolence.

"Why do you not think you're a nice person?"

"Because it makes me happy to fantasize about lining people I don't like up sitting along the edges of train platforms, so that when the train comes their legs are all severed off. I like to think about them screaming themselves into unconsciousness."
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:28, closed)

Ha ha! That is ace!
Trust me now I could think of a thousand things to say, your one is excellent, but like I say at the time I was shy and thought it best to keep my mouth shut.
( VandenPlas can't think of anything clever - no change there!, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:39, closed)

You don't have to be in a relationship to get a warning off
I recall becoming friendly - in the non-biblical, proper friend sense - with a woman I used to work with. We had a similar sense of humour and similar interests and used to chat in our free time and on breaks.*

So one evening, two minutes after this woman had gone home, the acting manager called me into "her" office for a lecture. She had started on the same day as me and was nominally the same grade, but saw herself as a cut above - she was only one letter out.

She told me that rumours of an affair were going around and how "mud sticks" and my future career could be jeopardised.

I think my reply was "oh, well". I'm still at the same company 18 years later, so perhaps it did adversely affect my career after all.

*With our respective partners we used to enter as a team in a local pub quiz, so it's not like our friendship was in any way surreptitious.
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Wed 16 Jun 2010, 19:44, closed)