Rae,
It's an interesting question. I must admit I'm fairly anti- couples
in the same department. As well as the drawbacks you identified
there is also 'pillow talk' - this is a real problem if the couple
have different levels of senority. In the past I've also worked in
places where this translates to real or imagined preferential
treatment and or departmental issues developing into personal issues
between the couple (usually in public venues - very ugly!). The
other thing is that it is really awful being in a group where a
couple is having a 'domestic' arguement and the rest of the lab gets
caught in it.
Having said all that I also know couples in departments who don't
have any problems - but it was a big department spread over several
floors of a building and the two people didn't work in the same
areas.
My feeling is that if you can, to avoid hiring couples to work in the
same department.
jenny
