Brooke blogs "The Office": It's a girl! - SmartBrief

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Brooke blogs “The Office”: It’s a girl!

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Leadership

Last night on “The Office,” Jim and Pam welcomed Cecelia Marie Halpert. All together now — “awwwwww!”

As is always the case in TV land, the birth of a baby made for a very special episode, which I won’t describe in detail. I will say that it  contained both the cute — baby, anxious dad, big bouquet of balloons — and the cringe-worthy: The Halperts’ kitchen destroyed while they’re at the hospital, graphic description of the worst parts of the birth process, way too much screen time devoted to breast-feeding drama. If you want to know more, the full episode is available online.

After a typically bumbling attempt to “help” Jim and Pam, Michael ends up back in the office reflecting on their relationship and telling a tale with him at the center of their match made in heaven.  The wave of nostalgia carries him to the next logical step — trying to create more magical matches at the office.

At the same time, Dwight, jealous of  Jim and Pam’s ability to get extra sales with the news of their new family member, decides he wants a baby, too, and asks Angela to be the mother.

So as Michael goes about trying to set up Erin and Kevin, Dwight and Angela negotiate a parenting contract with disturbing details.

This led my mind to a frequent topic of conversation in the world of business articles, blogs and best-practices tomes — office romance. I’ve had one, and I’d bet my paycheck that plenty of you have, too. Even if you haven’t, I’m sure you know at least one person — or one couple — who has.

Is this a problem? Probably if bosses at real companies were doubling as matchmakers, it would be, but I think in general it isn’t — if it’s managed in a sensible way. I like the approach advocated by one attorney in a February Bloomberg BusinessWeek Q&A.

What sort of office-romance policies have you encountered in your career? What approach do you think companies should take in dealing with the inevitable issue of office romance?

Image credit, NBC