People get together at work whatever the policies in place, that will not change. If your relationship with the client were to turn sour, the chance of difficulties emerging is no less apparent - the client might, for example, withdraw his or her business from your firm. It is not difficult to imagine that your firm would take a dim view of you, for example, offering - or appearing to offer - preferential terms to this client or, for example, if co-workers raised suspicions that you were misusing expenses or sharing information inappropriately with the client. Breaches of confidentiality are a notable risk in the City, whether resulting from the sharing of confidential information with clients externally or as a result of the failure to respect Chinese walls internally.Įven if you are subject to no specific relationship policy, embarking on a relationship with a key client could lead to disciplinary repercussions if your conduct leads to the sorts of problems referred to above. Whether you are subject to specific rules or not - and even assuming that you know this client well and that you are confident that you will not cause offence - you may be unwise to go ahead and send a card without thinking about the possible consequences.Įvery situation is different but some of the issues which lead employers to try to control relationships include: conflicts of interest, nepotism, abuse of authority position of power, sexual harassment, loss of objectivity and damage to a company's image and/or productivity.
Often these sorts of rules only kick in once a relationship is sufficiently "serious" and many policies would not apply to the sending of a Valentine's card. This type of situation may be less likely to arise where a client is in a senior role but would be more likely to arise where the client is, for example, a graduate trainee or an intern. It's good practice for such rules to be limited in scope and to be directed towards particular areas of risk - for example to focus on situations in which the client is, for some reason, in a vulnerable position.
By way of example, some organisations require their employees to disclose certain personal relationships some organisations may try to outlaw physical/romantic relationships between employees or with clients altogether.
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