For August 2025, we have asked the employment team at Tughans LLP to provide practical answers to unusual, sensitive or complex work-related queries. We call this feature “How do I handle it?”

The articles are aimed at HR professionals and other managers who may need to deal, from time to time, with the less commonplace disputes at work; issues that may, if handled incorrectly, lead to claims for discrimination, constructive dismissal or some other serious difficulty. 
 

We’ve all seen the fallout from recent events at a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts, which have very publicly demonstrated the potentially significant repercussions of workplace relationships. Although not every office romance will make global headlines, they are somewhat inevitable and, in some situations, can create sensitive difficulties which you need to deal with.    

There is no specific legislation dealing with workplace relationships in the UK, and ultimately individual businesses will decide what is right for them. This naturally depends greatly on circumstances such as the size of the business, but there is no “one size fits all” approach. 

The default position is that being in a workplace relationship does not prevent an employee from properly performing their duties or impact their colleagues – which is ultimately the limit of your remit as an employer. The fact that these colleagues are in a relationship is not an actionable concern in itself. 

Problems usually start when a particular relationship involves a power imbalance, like this relationship between the CEO and their colleague. This can lead to accusations of favouritism or other inappropriate conduct, such as abuse of company property, expenses claims or disclosure of sensitive information. If a relationship goes sour outside work, there can be further accusations of retaliatory or other unfair treatment within the workplace. As we have seen, there can be a damaging reputational element as well, both internally and externally.  

With these potential risks in mind, it is best practice to have a policy in place to provide some structure and guidance for dealing with these issues when they arise.  This can include a duty for colleagues who have a managerial/reporting line relationship to disclose if they are in a relationship. 

As a starting point, you should consider that these complaints have been made by other employees. It is likely that the appropriate response will be to acknowledge their complaints and indicate that they will be investigated, that the process will be confidential, although they may be asked to provide further information if they have witnessed any conduct which may breach your policies and procedures. If the complainants are raising specific issues about the workplace relationship’s impact on them, you should consider whether their complaints should be treated as grievances. 

If it appears that there has been a breach of your policies, or there are potentially actionable concerns around inappropriate conduct, the next step is to investigate. Although you may normally be responsible for investigating, you should carefully consider whether this is appropriate in the circumstances. Your main concern will be to avoid any interference or pressure from the CEO which would impact the neutrality of the investigation. Even if you are confident that you can complete a neutral and fair investigation, you should consider the practical importance of maintaining the perception of neutrality and fairness. 

You might consider whether there is an appropriate person who can investigate, who has a sufficient level of neutrality and freedom from direct influence. This will often be someone on your board of directors, such as the chair or a non-executive director. They could, if needed, receive HR support (such as assistance during meetings) from an external consultant. You might consider appointing an experienced external HR consultant to conduct the investigation itself. 

You will also need to consider who will deal with any disciplinary process which results from the investigation – and again, this will often be someone from the board of directors, or a committee appointed by them. 

One you have appointed a suitable investigator; you should carry out a thorough and fair investigation in line with your internal policies and procedures. You should arrange meetings with the complainants and gather the available evidence. You should remind everyone that the investigation process is confidential throughout and ensure that you keep a careful note of each step of the investigation process. 

If the complainants have indicated that they witnessed inappropriate conduct, they should be asked whether they are willing to participate in any disciplinary process. Ideally, you should not rely on anonymous witness evidence and should not guarantee witnesses a total right to anonymity. The CEO (and the other employee) have a right to understand the disciplinary charges against them, and to defend themselves, which will usually involve knowing who has made the allegations. However, this may be dependent on whether an incident was witnessed by a large number of employees or was captured on video, which could reduce the potential unfairness of maintaining anonymity for individual witnesses. 

In circumstances where the CEO or the other employee dispute what has happened, you should exercise real caution before proceeding with disciplinary allegations which are based solely on anonymous evidence. This is especially important if serious allegations have been made, such as sexual harassment or other inappropriate conduct. 

If there is ultimately a finding that misconduct has occurred, you will need to consider the sanction warranted, and whether you can take any other appropriate remedial actions. This will naturally be very fact specific. You should consider whether any inappropriate conduct has occurred at what ultimately was a work event, and if any specific aspects of your policies (such as a duty to disclose relationships) have been breached. You may need to consider the CEO and the other employee’s line management structure and whether they can be separated for the purpose of your internal processes such as performance and pay reviews or internal recruitment exercises, and if any other safeguards can be put in place. If you are considering dismissal, it would be best practice to consider whether alternative options can be accommodated before taking this step. Given the imbalance in power, there is the potential that a higher disciplinary sanction will be appropriate for the CEO compared to the junior colleague. 

If you have not already you should consider putting in place a workplace relationship policy. This will clarify the standards of behaviour you expect from employees and help you to navigate issues going forward.