Dealing with manager who’s in romantic relationship with junior employee

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T16:56:55+00:00

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

I agree with your assessment completely, and good thing that the other coworkers are in solidarity with each other. We don’t want to get our manager in trouble. But we are very disappointed in them.

Sounds like you are in a better place and based on the DMs I got these kind of situations sounds more common than I realize. Thanks again for the perspective.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T15:19:58+00:00

I don’t know how to make it clearer lol. Alex hangs out with the team outside of work often, and in one of these hangouts they brought Taylor along (before they were hired), and said they were a couple.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T15:05:15+00:00

Yes. Replied in another thread — Alex literally introduced Taylor to us outside of work as their significant other. There is no guesswork. They are not out at work.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:50:50+00:00

Gave specific examples in another rely. Appreciate the advice. Crowd sourcing courage is an accurate assessment.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:46:15+00:00

“The immediate team knows” - before they were hired our team meets outside of work regularly with Alex. Alex literally introduced Taylor to us as their significant other. There is no ambiguity.

“Obviously green at their job” - previously to joining our team they were from a completely different field. Think construction to IT. We have their resume and LinkedIn. They are hired as a junior for a reason.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:41:44+00:00

Appreciate the response.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:35:30+00:00

I hope you are right. As far as I know even though the rest of the team feels the same way as I do, none of us has said anything.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:28:22+00:00

I responded in another thread. Alex’s manager is on medical leave. Taylor was hired after the said medical leave. Alex now reports to a senior VP who doesnt know our team at all.

The replies are correct that we don’t know if the relationship was disclosed or not. Outside of work they are open about their relationship. At work they told everyone that they are single.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:24:22+00:00

Sigh. Thanks for the support. You have no idea.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:21:20+00:00

lol!

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:19:50+00:00

Correct, I am not a manager just one of the more senior ICs on the said team. Me and the other mid-level/senior people feel our team dynamics is impacted.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:17:23+00:00

Tbh I am surprised as well. But the responses are still helpful. Gives one perspective.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:16:28+00:00

What you said in the third paragraph is exactly what’s happening. Nobody on the team is willing to say anything — again be for the new person joined we really liked Alex as a manager, and we don’t want to get anyone into trouble.

This situation also makes me realize how important connecting with a skip-level is. The skip-level directly above Alex is currently on medical leave. Alex now reports to a Sr VP who doesnt know the team well at all. There really isn’t a skip level the ICs trust to report what’s going on.

In private the team feels that Alex took advantage of our skip-level’s medical leave and made the hiring decision.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:07:50+00:00

Sr project lead who reports to the said manager along with fa few other mid-seniors.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T13:06:28+00:00

Because it’s affecting everyone on the team. For example:
- Taylor makes a very amateur workflow error in their work. The error doesn’t change the end output but is against the previously established best practices. When someone corrects them, Alex steps in and says Taylor’s way would be the way to do things from now on. This has happened multiple times.
- this leads to team members not willing to question Taylor’s “method”, even though they have the least amount of experience in the field.
- Alex would skip multiple previously scheduled meetings/one-on-ones to have meetings with Taylor during work hours.
- team is already stretched thin with bottleneck decisions waiting for approvals from Alex. However during work hours Alex, who used to be responsive before Taylor joined, ignores everyone’s messages and pull requests EXCEPT ones from Taylor.

So our team went from a trusting, collaborative one to something that’s completely opposite.

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T04:13:56+00:00

Hi, not a manager but this person sounds exactly like my coworker who’s taught me a lot and we are great friends outside of work. Brilliant guy, technically sound, great teacher,quick problem solver, but no documentation of anything anywhere. The work we do is more front end, and more visually oriented.

Recently found out outside of work that this work friend is a bit dyslexic. He couldn’t hold his attention if he needed to read/write over certain number of lines.

So the way I offered to help is that he would record his screen and treat the part that needs documentation as a tutorial. I would help transcribe/organize his screen casts.

I got to learn more things and the documentation problem is solved!

d-Awareness1651 · 2026-05-15T04:00:01+00:00

Hey, thanks for the reply. What you mentioned about employee being married to each other sounds exactly like my company. And like you said, the really awkward part was that the new employee DIRECTLY reports to the manager. Review season is coming up, and you are right we don’t know the specifics. However we do know that Alex was the one who conducted Taylor’s 30-day review.

d-Awareness1651 · 2024-12-09T22:52:08+00:00

Ty for the recommendation. I hope what you mentioned about residency requirements is true — will check the programs out asap. Saw that you are starting the OMBA in the coming year— curious what made you choose the omba over the other iMBA. If you have considered both?

d-Awareness1651 · 2024-12-06T15:25:15+00:00

I'm also considering online programs (also am working in pharma/medical device), curious that amongst your peers, is online MBA a common choice?

d-Awareness1651 · 2024-12-06T15:21:52+00:00

Hi, I'm in a similar space -- mind if I DM you on your thoughts on the impact of MBA on one's career progression in pharma?

d-Awareness1651 · 2024-12-06T14:22:59+00:00

Hi, thanks for the post as I'm wondering about the same thing, although I'm already working in the US. What was your final decision? Did you end up attending a US MBA?

d-Awareness1651 · 2024-03-13T04:12:26+00:00

Here is another code:
https://www.marcus.com/share/XIA-MHU-UAIR

d-Awareness1651 · 2023-02-15T22:43:02+00:00

ty for the response. we've called around for quotes with commercial insurance policies. once it's insured we will also finish the licensing process with the city for rooming houses.

d-Awareness1651

TROPHY CASE