Facebook dating policy allows employees to ask each other out just once

If they are rejected, the rule states they cannot ask again

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Office romances may be complicated, but that doesn't necessarily stop colleagues from canoodling by the water cooler.

A recent study of more than 2,000 professionals found that 45 per cent of those questioned have dated a co-worker at some point in their lives.

Hence why Facebook has instilled a dating policy which, according to a Wall Street Journal report, allows employees to ask a colleague out once. It's a rule we think all workplaces could learn from.

If their advances are rebuffed, the rule states they aren’t allowed to ask again.

Obviously the laws of dating are less binary than such a ruling implies, which is why Facebook’s head of employment law went on to clarify that even vague responses such as “I’m busy” or “I can’t that night” should be understood as a hard no.

While this might sound a tad brutal, it certainly makes the art of rejecting someone a lot easier.

An ambiguous “I’m not free tonight” is a much more socially acceptable rejection than a straightforward “no” or the classic “I’m just not that into you”.

Plus, it probably makes it that much easier to revert to being friendly colleagues afterwards without any awkwardness.

However, if two colleagues do decide to date each other, they aren’t obliged to tell human resources - unless there’s a conflict of interest.

The relationship can even remain secret if there’s a power disparity between the couple i.e. one person is a senior manager while the other is in a junior role.

This is not the case at Google, which the Journal reports discourages relationships between colleagues when there is an imbalance of power.

Also unlike Facebook, a spokesperson for Google added that the company has no rule in place dictating how many times colleagues are allowed to ask each other out.

As for what constitutes as asking someone out, that’s a whole other kettle of fish that even Google can’t answer.

Anna Wood worked at Google for four years and told the Journal she never knew if people were asking her out or not, explaining she often inadvertently found herself on dates that she had perceived as platonic meetings.

The course of true love never did run smooth, or explicitly clarified.