How Should Men and Women Interact in the Office?
Question: What are some general guidelines for appropriate interactions between men and women in the workplace?
Answer: In general, conversations should be reserved for work-related matters. That doesn’t mean you literally have to measure every single word you say, but, in general, only technical things that are related to work should be spoken about between male and female coworkers. They should not shmuz together about things like where they went on vacation, whether or not they had a good time, etc. Unfortunately, coworkers of the opposite gender often become very comfortable with each other and their conversations become very personal, which could be very dangerous.
Someone I know recently told me that a female had posted a beautiful picture of a sunrise on her LinkedIn page and many males had commented on how nice it was. If they were commenting in a manner that they only would use for a female, and would not use for a male, they may have crossed the line into a serious transgression.
The general idea is that men and women do need to be careful at work to keep their interactions professional and work-related.