Bloggertone

Employer code of conduct: A previous company I worked for had a policy of “no nepotism” – i.e. if you had a relative working for the company, you couldn’t work for the company – period. Logic was that it missed out on some good candidates, but also missed out on all duds. It was policy – zero exceptions.

Except in Dublin, where we had a couple who joined separately soon after it started here and only afterwards got engaged/married. No rule broken, technically, but an issue.

Some time after I left, there was a round of redundancies and I heard both were selected for redundancy. Dilemma for the company exec who travelled over with the list: both husband and wife were reported as selected for redundancy. Something that was not expected, as the company policy, in theory, should have ensured nothing like this could happen. Thankfully local HR raised issue an hour or so before the meeting.

Result: one name was removed from the list. Moral: sometimes, no matter what you legislate for, the unexpected happens. Thankfully, more often than not, met with common sense and a little humanity. However, we always hear about the exceptions.

I hope managers facing this situation in their work environment use a little common sense and if they need help – re-read your article.
Thanks Miriam.

Of course you are absolutely right Andrew. You can legislate as much as you want but the real test of a good manager is being able to cope with the unusual or unexpected. As you mentioned, common sense and humanity should always be to the fore in such situations. Sometimes a little humour (used with care!) helps too.