It’s spring and love is in the air. But many employers would like to keep it out of the office.

Skittish about the potential legal fallout, an increasing number of employers are asking amorous workers to sign affidavits declaring that their relationships are consensual.

These so-called “love pacts” are aimed at minimizing liability risks if the office affair sours and the spurned party – often a woman subordinate – files a sexual harassment claim.

“No matter whether something’s consensual today, it will be non-consensual if the person gets terminated,” warned E. Michelle Bohreer, chairman of the litigation group of Boyar & Miller in Houston.

Over the past 18 months, Bohreer said, companies have grown increasingly concerned about employee romances. She now writes a set of love affidavits for clients once every few months.

Fueling these concerns is the recent scandal involving Boeing chief executive Harry C. Stonecipher, 68, who was ousted this March after admitting he had a consensual affair with a female Boeing executive.

Stonecipher – who is married and has grown children – had been called out of retirement to help clean up the aerospace giant’s tarnished image. The board of directors confronted him after receiving an anonymous tip about his extramarital affair.

Stonecipher and his paramour – who did not report directly to him – reportedly exchanged graphic e-mails detailing their relationship.

The Boeing board cited Stonecipher for violating an internal conduct code he had imposed on all Boeing employees, and indicated it terminated Stonecipher for exercising “bad judgment” inconsistent with company goals and policies.

One of the most surprising aspects of the scandal, said Bohreer, was the careless use of company e-mail.

“I think it’s shocking to have someone with that education not realize that his e-mails are going to be used against him and to be so careless in the workplace,” she said.

Given the potential fallout, Atlanta attorney Glenn G. Patton suggested that companies may want to try to head off problems by banning office dating outright. Patton, a partner in Alston & Bird’s labor and employment group, said that a non-fraternization rule could be added to the employee manual.

According to Jackson Lewis, a New York law firm that specializes in employment law, 20 percent of 234 companies surveyed in 2004 said they have a policy regulating co-worker dating, up from 7 percent in 2003.

Another approach is to prohibit the dating relationship most likely to cause problems: one involving a manager or executive and a junior-level employee.

Whenever one person in a couple is in a higher position than the other, there’s always the risk – or at least appearance – that the executive may be using his or her position to extract sexual favors, according to Patton.

When a client comes to her for advice, said Bohreer, “one of the things we do is look at the relationship between the people. If it’s a supervisor-subordinate relationship, then you have a potential sexual harassment claim.”

Love Hurts

Besides the legal issues, Patton said, boss/ worker love affairs can be bad for company morale.

“To me, it’s the non-legal things that cause the biggest disruption,” he commented. “Think of the countless hours employees waste speculating about the nature of a relationship between two workers. Gossiping is huge.”

The fear of generating office gossip leads many couples keep their relationship under wraps.

Matthew Tuttle, a securities lawyer with Perkins, Smith & Cohen in Boston, met his future wife, Rachel Solar, when they were both working at a major law firm in Boston. He was an associate; she was a summer associate.

Although the firm didn’t have a policy against dating, the couple decided to keep their relationship quiet.

“The two of us decided to keep the relationship – at least during that summer – pretty confidential simply to avoid any complications,” he said. “I didn’t want to be in a position where someone said I was using what position of limited authority I had.”

Married for eight years, the couple has a two-year-old child. Solar now works for a public relations firm in Boston.

Love Is Here To Stay

Employment experts say that no matter what legal route employers take, they need to be realistic about the difficulty of locking love out of the workplace.

“American workers work longer and harder hours, and we spend more time in the workplace,” Patton said. “It’s certainly a marketplace where you’re likely to encounter people you’re attracted to.”

So, whether companies take a hands-off approach, prohibit dating or make couples sign affidavits, there’s often little an employer can do to lock love out of the office.

“The natural relationships between men and women are always going to occur,” Patton said. “All you can do as an employer is set forth what your expectations are.”

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: [email protected]