Odd situation

[rougie]

Massachusetts

I am an assistant manager at a small retail store. In September I began dating one of our part-time workers. At some point in October/November, the manager became aware of our relationship, and even though we have no policies against dating, he was very upset by it.

He immediately made some schedule changes to keep us on somewhat seperate hours, but since we are only open 64 hours a week, it is next to impossible for us to never work together. I understand that he has the right to set schedules as he sees fit, but where it gets strange is here: Despite the fact that our in-store relationship has remained strictly professional, and my work output has been fine (I've recently gotten a raise and additional responsibilities), he called my co-worker into the office this past week to talk to her, and part of what he told her was that she was no longer allowed to even to talk me in the store, because he feels that we are talking about him behind his back, and he can't deal with the "emotional distress" this causes him.

This just seems nutty to me, I've never heard of anything like it. Is he within his rights as a manager to demand such a thing?

Thanks!

 

[Beth3]

The boss sounds a little paranoid. Either that or his ego is such that he can't imagine the two of you would be interested in talking about anything besides him. In any event, none of this is illegal and he can schedule you for alternate hours and prohibit you from talking about him. Ironically, everything he's doing is just going to result in the two of you talking about him more though.

I'd suggest one or both of you lstart looking for employment elsewhere. Even if you weren't dating, the boss sounds a little nuts.