@ArcticFox12 said:

Do you think this will be a problem next season? Stuart owns the store so he doesn't have to answer to anyone but if they break up the tension fallout could ruin his business.

What happened to don't eat where ya you know what?

During my high school and college years I dated four different guys at work, and I ended up marrying the fourth one! So obviously I don't have an issue with dating in the workplace. With that said, all of the guys I dated were lateral to me rather than a supervisor.

In real life I think a supervisor dating an employee would cause issues and would be deemed inappropriate. However, for the purposes of this TV show I would love to see Stuart date Denise and finally be happy so I'm all for it! They are the only two employees at the comic book store, so they would not make other employees annoyed or jealous, and I think if they broke up the worst thing that could happen is for Denise to quit. That would not ruin the comic book store's business as Stuart could hire another new employee.

Realistically there must be more than two employees at the comic-book store especially if one is the owner. They would be both too exhausted from working all the time to have a relationship. I think that Dale would want to take advantage of this and swoop in and steal away Denise from Stuart, unless we see the return of Captain Sweatpants. Now lets just say that Denise turns super villain and plans to steal the store away form Stuart while he is busy making googly eyes at her Yes Stuart is in for some potential drama for sure. This could be very interesting.

@znexyish said:

Realistically there must be more than two employees at the comic-book store especially if one is the owner. They would be both too exhausted from working all the time to have a relationship. I think that Dale would want to take advantage of this and swoop in and steal away Denise from Stuart, unless we see the return of Captain Sweatpants. Now lets just say that Denise turns super villain and plans to steal the store away form Stuart while he is busy making googly eyes at her Yes Stuart is in for some potential drama for sure. This could be very interesting.

Dale?

Think: “Women's prison and a fist full of pardons...”

@ArcticFox12 said:

Do you think this will be a problem next season? Stuart owns the store so he doesn't have to answer to anyone but if they break up the tension fallout could ruin his business.

What happened to don't eat where ya you know what?

I don't think there will be any firing or quitting going on if things "get awkward" between them. Stuart is so conditioned to losing that he will simply revert to his sad-sack self and run to his shrink.

As for "don't eat where ya you know what"--well; since there is no company policy to violate, or HR Lady to deal with, and it’s what both consenting adults want-- I’m thinking: what-the-heck.

I've never dated-dated a coworker; but, have spent some casual outside-of-work time with a few.

Y'know what would be funny? It turns out that Deb Deb's investment in the comic book store now means that Howard/Bernadette are co-owners so when Stuart acts up, or dumps Denise, or whatever, she sues Howard and Bernadette as the "deep pockets."

Then maybe Denise ends up owning the store completely. She hires Stuart and harasses him like crazy, but Stuart is okay with it.

@SpecialFlowers said:

@ArcticFox12 said:

Do you think this will be a problem next season? Stuart owns the store so he doesn't have to answer to anyone but if they break up the tension fallout could ruin his business.

What happened to don't eat where ya you know what?

During my high school and college years I dated four different guys at work, and I ended up marrying the fourth one! So obviously I don't have an issue with dating in the workplace. With that said, all of the guys I dated were lateral to me rather than a supervisor.

In real life I think a supervisor dating an employee would cause issues and would be deemed inappropriate. However, for the purposes of this TV show I would love to see Stuart date Denise and finally be happy so I'm all for it! They are the only two employees at the comic book store, so they would not make other employees annoyed or jealous, and I think if they broke up the worst thing that could happen is for Denise to quit. That would not ruin the comic book store's business as Stuart could hire another new employee.

I've dated guys at jobs too Lemons, it's bound to happen . Proximity breeds either attraction or contempt....

And despite popular opinion the most likely place to meet your spouse is at work, more common than any other place.

@znexyish said:

Realistically there must be more than two employees at the comic-book store especially if one is the owner. They would be both too exhausted from working all the time to have a relationship. I think that Dale would want to take advantage of this and swoop in and steal away Denise from Stuart, unless we see the return of Captain Sweatpants. Now lets just say that Denise turns super villain and plans to steal the store away form Stuart while he is busy making googly eyes at her Yes Stuart is in for some potential drama for sure. This could be very interesting.

Znex, you bring up a great point. What if Denise is just in it to steal his business? I foresee a plot direction when Stuart falls in love, makes her co-owner and she exploits legal loopholes to try to assume full control.

Denise being the main villain of season 13 could be interesting.

@Knixon said:

Y'know what would be funny? It turns out that Deb Deb's investment in the comic book store now means that Howard/Bernadette are co-owners so when Stuart acts up, or dumps Denise, or whatever, she sues **Howard and **Bernadette as the "deep pockets."

Then maybe Denise ends up owning the store completely. She hires Stuart and harasses him like crazy, but Stuart is okay with it.

Denise running-up-on Bernie would be like a lightning bug running-up-on lightning!

@CalabrianQueen said:

I've dated guys at jobs too Lemons, it's bound to happen . Proximity breeds either attraction or contempt....

And despite popular opinion the most likely place to meet your spouse is at work, more common than any other place.

Yes, I've actually always taken issue with workplaces who have policies against co-workers dating. I don't personally think that a workplace should be able to regulate one's personal life. However, if people do decide to date a co-worker, they should act with professionalism within the workplace and should be subject to disciplinary action if they don't, same as any other types of unprofessional behaviors would lead to.

In other words, if you're going to date a co-worker, leave the mush/PDA until you leave the building.

The whole next season might just depend on Denise making things interesting as an outsider to the all too familiar cast and their all too familiar problems. The show needs a bit of a shake up to wake up. Denise is just the girl to do that.

@FormerlyKnownAs said:

@Knixon said:

Y'know what would be funny? It turns out that Deb Deb's investment in the comic book store now means that Howard/Bernadette are co-owners so when Stuart acts up, or dumps Denise, or whatever, she sues **Howard and **Bernadette as the "deep pockets."

Then maybe Denise ends up owning the store completely. She hires Stuart and harasses him like crazy, but Stuart is okay with it.

Denise running-up-on Bernie would be like a lightning bug running-up-on lightning!

That's a funny line, but if they were actually in court, Bernadette would not be running the show. And she could easily end up in jail if she tried to.

@SpecialFlowers said:

@CalabrianQueen said:

I've dated guys at jobs too Lemons, it's bound to happen . Proximity breeds either attraction or contempt....

And despite popular opinion the most likely place to meet your spouse is at work, more common than any other place.

Yes, I've actually always taken issue with workplaces who have policies against co-workers dating. I don't personally think that a workplace should be able to regulate one's personal life. However, if people do decide to date a co-worker, they should act with professionalism within the workplace and should be subject to disciplinary action if they don't, same as any other types of unprofessional behaviors would lead to.

In other words, if you're going to date a co-worker, leave the mush/PDA until you leave the building.

I’ve always figured that TPTB really do not care. It’s going to happen--policy or no policy. They know this. All a written policy does is give them someone(s) to throw under the bus in hopes of limiting liability.

The words: “we have a strict policy against….” can save some mega payout and lessen some ugly/negative blowbacks if the thing ends up in court—or even worse: in the media.

As far as I’m concerned, the name of that game is “CYA”.

Yes that's true, but it also means that if a company/management becomes aware of such a thing, they would be obligated to act - insist the relationship end, demote or fire one of the participants, etc - or else lose that legal shield. It's the same for companies that have "sexual harassment" policies etc, but can be shown to have not enforced them, or to have done so with bias etc.

@SpecialFlowers said:

@CalabrianQueen said:

I've dated guys at jobs too Lemons, it's bound to happen . Proximity breeds either attraction or contempt....

And despite popular opinion the most likely place to meet your spouse is at work, more common than any other place.

Yes, I've actually always taken issue with workplaces who have policies against co-workers dating. I don't personally think that a workplace should be able to regulate one's personal life. However, if people do decide to date a co-worker, they should act with professionalism within the workplace and should be subject to disciplinary action if they don't, same as any other types of unprofessional behaviors would lead to.

In other words, if you're going to date a co-worker, leave the mush/PDA until you leave the building.

Bingo. I used to work in a department store, one my first jobs, and we had a really young manager. I knew for a fact he was messing around with half the girls who worked for him.

Now THAT should be zero tolerance because it involves a boss and an employee. Two workers on the same level dating outside shouldn't be scrutinized to that extent unless it has a tangible affect on the workplace.

@Knixon said:

Yes that's true, but it also means that if a company/management becomes aware of such a thing, *they would be obligated to act *- insist the relationship end, demote or fire one of the participants, etc - or else lose that legal shield. It's the same for companies that have "sexual harassment" policies etc, but can be shown to have not enforced them, or to have done so with bias etc.

Upon knowing, the only thing they would be obligated to do is follow the guidelines outlined in their "strict policy against".

If it calls for any or or all of the things you mentioned +, and they "failed to act", then, yes I think they would be equally liable.