Dating at the place of work is quite common but the rules are not that straightforward.  Apart from the gossip there is a serious question: How do firms address workplace romance?  From talking to friends of mine who are HR experts, I learned that, while many firms don't welcome relationships, most tolerate them if the couples come forward.  Like most things in life, it's secrecy that can become the problem.

When it comes to dating within professional firms such as legal and auditing, apparently there's a hierarchy of what is acceptable behaviour or isn't.  Going after a new recruit?  Universally prohibited.  Two associates dating? Usually okay.  A partner and an associate becoming involved?  Frowned upon but sometimes allowed.

Exactly where that line falls varies. I have been told that in a major auditing firm, an associate kissing a secretary in the coffee room earned himself a reprimand and was put on leave.  In one law firm, however, two partners were discovered dating each other, but the romance was allowed to go forward.

When one considers that most professionals spend so much time at work, it may be ​no surprise they find romantic partners there, too.  Spending late nights in the office finishing briefs on deadline is the ideal ground for blossoming romances.

Sometimes, though, office relationships can become a "no-win situation for firms" no ​matter how they were managed.  In the old days, the disclosure or discovery of a relationship meant one of the two people had to leave the firm.  It was typically the more junior person, often the woman, who had to go.  Eventually, wrongful termination laws evolved, and pushing someone out exposed a firm to liability, so those policies stopped.

One perennial problem is the potential fallout when an office relationship sours. This is when firms have to make sure the firm isn't exposed to claims of harassment or retaliation.  If the firm's managers get caught blindsided, the consequences can be serious.

Many a time, if those involved disclose their relationship early on, one of the pair will (usually the lower-ranked employee), will be reassigned elsewhere so it isn't being overseen in any way by its romantic partner.  Otherwise, firms can face potential complaints from colleagues who believe the romance created conflicts, favouritism, or a hostile work ‌environment.

The #MeToo movement, which gained momentum in 2017, focused attention on abuses of power in the workplace.  Firms and companies increased sexual harassment training.  But, once the hullabaloo subsided, a relaxed attitude started prevailing again. 

The cases of problematic romances in Malta have increased in recent years, and some have finished in the courts or before disciplinary boards.  In quite a few cases, romances gone wrong lead to claims of sexual harassment.  They can be quite messy.  It is not uncommon in such cases that one of the partners was in a leadership position and thought he could do whatever he wanted.

Sometimes, romances can become instantly famous.  Some of my readers will probably remember the July 2025 incident when a married tech CEO and his company's HR chief were caught by a kiss-cam at a Coldplay concert in Massachusetts.  Their panicked reaction   ̶   ducking and hiding their faces   ̶   became legendary.  Both eventually resigned from the company after the video went viral.

Farewell to social benefits

Recently, a British man who kept his mother's body in a freezer for almost three years, while he received almost £80,000 ​of her welfare benefits, was sentenced to over two years in prison.

Police officers knocked on the man's door after concerns were raised about his mother, whom medical professionals had not seen since September 2022.  He told them she was in London ​with relatives, but a search of the home led to ​the officers discovering a freezer with his mother's body inside, covered with flowers and ‌next ⁠to a birthday card from her son and his dog.

British media reported that the man told a psychiatrist that he "didn't want to let her go" and that he had slept ​in the same ​room to ⁠be close to the body.  I would add that a repeat of this improbable story would likely have a sorrier ending in Malta, where electricity outages would cause the human remains to thaw and the flowers to wilt.

Not that we don't have people who claim social security benefits they aren't entitled to, only they don't need to keep their dead mums at home with them.  In the last 11 years alone, the Department of Social Security in Malta managed to uncover 12,582 cases of abuse in social benefits.

The figure was quoted by Mr George Cremona, the director general of social security, in an interview on TVM.  The investigations led to the recovery of some €56m.  In the grand scheme of things and the extensive waste in government, this might seem a piddling amount.  But when one considers that this would equate to a lump sum payment of €583 to each one of the thousands of people at risk of poverty, it is not to be scoffed at.

Mr. Cremona knows a thing or two about abuses in benefits.  The Social Ministry has also had to deal with the aftermath of the severe disability fraud cases uncovered in 2023.  The fraud was orchestrated by a prominent medical doctor and involved complicity by public servants.  Thankfully, we learned from Mr. Cremona that the Police have brought 340 cases of abuse to Court, of which 85 have already resulted in people paying back all the benefits they had received.

In spite of the huge outcry in Malta, social security fraud is not widespread.  Exact figures are hard to come by, even in the EU, but some cross-country estimates suggest that welfare evasion and fraud create a 3% to 5% income shortfall in public social security systems.    

Grab a book

People all over the world are reading less.  Although reading has been associated with mental nutrition and long-term success for a long time, annual book consumption data shows a stark division between "super-readers" and non-readers.  In the European Union, 52.8% of EU citizens aged 16 years or over reported reading books, with women outperforming men, in 2022.  In Malta it was 53.8%    ̶    compare that to 75.0% in Luxembourg.

Is it a coincidence that Facebook launched in 2004 and the iPhone was released in 2007?  It may well be that social media and smart phones together may be accomplices in the decline.  I am reminded of Roberta Flack and the hip-hop group The Fugees and their classic "Killing Me Softly with His Song."

Why should we read?  Books expand our thinking and knowledge base. They help us understand how things work, and how successful people became successful.  When we read, we learn what is changing in the world   ̶   this helps us adapt to the change, rather than be pummelled by it. We can also be inspired and be motivated by reading.    

Bill Gates reads about 50 books a year while Warren Buffett reads about 500 pages per day. Is it a coincidence that they are famously rich?  I for one don't think so.  Reading separates them from the pack.  People who read books have a great competitive advantage over those who don't.

Yet, there are fewer and fewer people who are willing to do the slow, steady, yet rewarding acquisition of knowledge through reading.  Instead of accumulating broad and deep knowledge that helps make them more competent, valuable and indispensable, many are content with bite-sized bits of video, podcasts, and tweets served by algorithms.

According to legend, twenty-three centuries ago King Ptolemy I of Egypt instructed his court adviser to assemble a comprehensive collection of the world's written works. Ptolemy envisioned a library that would preserve the sum total of humanity's knowledge. His forces and those of his successors ransacked every ship that arrived at Alexandria, searching for scrolls. These were stored at the Mouseion, a shrine to the Muses modelled after Aristotle's Lyceum. Aristotle's own book collection was said to be among the holdings.

Unfortunately, much of the history of the Library of Alexandria has been lost. But in its time, the library was the site of many of the premodern world's greatest intellectual achievements. Scholars were paid by the Pharaohs to live and work in the library, and the collection was available to anyone "eager to study, an encouragement for the entire city to gain wisdom," a visiting Greek rhetorician wrote.

It was at the library that Eratosthenes calculated Earth's circumference and Zenodotus edited the earliest manuscripts of Homer's epics. Euclid, who wrote the Elements of geometry, may have studied there as well. Hipparchus developed early trigonometric concepts and compiled comprehensive star catalogues. whereas Claudius Ptolemy mapped planetary motions and formalised a geocentric universe model that persisted for centuries.

Some might argue that the World Wide Web is today's equivalent of the Library of Alexandria.  The information and knowledge stored in the cloud is available to millions of people.  People can still learn and be educated through social media. Platforms offer access to experts, microlearning videos, and global study groups that teach practical skills, languages, and science.

On the other hand, on-line reading and learning is beset with problems.  The scope for misinformation multiplies by the day as false facts and biased views predominate and become ingrained, unless fact-checked.  Also, unlike reading a printed book, constant scrolling on the computer shortens attention spans, drains mental energy, and triggers stress.  Moreover, on-line self-education rarely lacks the graded, step-by-step approach that is so effective in formal education.

In the new era of artificial intelligence, less reading will likely be complemented by less writing.  ChatGPT, Co-Pilot and Letterly will do the writing for us.  The likely result will be that millions will lose the skills involved and become entirely dependent on electronic media. 

Quote of the Week

"The husband is always the last to know."  Ex-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, when confronted with the question of how much he knew about Keith Schembri's and others' leakages and deflections after Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination