Marriage and the Workplace

[JuliieBean]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Hi Legal Gurus,

I have somewhat of a dilemma. I have recently accepted a job offer, yay! I am currently waiting for my background check before I get my start date. My fiancee just informed me that he got a phone call for an interview with the same company later this month. We would be working in the same office of about 30 people. We both work in the same field, and have about the same experience. The dilemma is I know that some work places have rules against married people working together and I don't want either of us to potentially be fired or not hired because of it. We currently live 500 miles apart and would love to be able to just live together. We are having our wedding ceremony in two weeks and have already applied and received for our marriage license paperwork.

Since he has not even interviewed with the company, we are not even married yet, I haven't even started, I am wondering if we should hold off on legally filling out paper work to be legally married until later to keep our options open. Do background checks reveal someone has applied for a marriage license?

Right now I'm just thinking ahead, while I would love it if we both had a job in the same city, I don't want one or both of us to lose out on anything. It would be prefect if we both got a job in the same city for different employers but that opportunity has not presented itself yet.

Anyone have any advice on what to do?

 

[swalsh411]

Until you both have a job offer you want to accept all this is premature. Don't put the cart in front of the horse. You will not have to reveal any of this during the internet and no background check I have ever seen says anything about marital status.

 

[ecmst12]

Proceed with your wedding plans as usual and file the papers promptly...you don't want to put it off and discover 5 years down the line that you never did it and so were never legally married!

Once you start work, he can mention in his interview that his wife just started working there - or not. Some companies have rules about inter-office dating, but I doubt that any employer would have issues with 2 people who were already married prior to working there coming on board, so long as they were not in a direct-reporting relationship. But he isn't going to want to look like he is hiding something, either. They liked you enough to offer you the job, so him being married to you could actually work in your favor. Some small companies even LIKE to have a family-type atmosphere in the office.

 

[Beth3]

Do background checks reveal someone has applied for a marriage license? Not the type of background check an employer would run. The CIA perhaps.

You're smart to be thinking about this but you're getting ahead of yourselves. Your fiance should pursue the interview and at such time as he's made an offer, he should then disclose the two of you are engaged. In the meantime, both of you should keep this info to yourselves. If being married is an issue for the employer, they can inform him at that time. You should proceed as planned with your new job.

Congratulations on both and two things to keep in mind for the long haul:

(1) You and your husband working at the same small company may prove to be just a little too much togetherness, and
(2) Having your total financial security tied up with one employer may not be wise. If the company is sold, shuts-down, has a business reduction resulting in layoffs, etc., both of you could end up out of work. If you do both end up working for this same company, you may well want to consider one of you moving on to a different employer down the road.