Workplace Affairs and Company Discipline

The Supreme Court holds that an employee's misconduct in private life is a legitimate ground for discipline only if it is directly related to business activities or risks harming the company's public reputation (Supreme Court Decision 93누23275, rendered December 13, 1994). An affair itself is a private matter, so a dismissal based on that alone leaves ample room to challenge it.

However, the judgment can change if the two kept meeting during working hours or business trips and work was disrupted, if they used company facilities, or if gossip in the office disturbed workplace order. If a superior used their position in the relationship, it can also become a matter of workplace sexual harassment or bullying.

Public officials can be disciplined for violating the duty to maintain dignity even for conduct outside their duties. Public institutions and some companies also have dignity clauses in their rules of employment, so the risk of discipline is greater than at ordinary companies.

In disciplinary proceedings, you are given an opportunity to explain. It's advisable to set out in writing how the relationship came about, that it did not affect your work, and that you have already ended it.

Telling the company may seem like a way to separate the two, but depending on how widely and in what way you tell, you could face a criminal complaint for defamation (명예훼손) or obstruction of business (업무방해). Posting in a group chat or on a bulletin board seen by many employees is especially risky.

If separating them at work is truly necessary, adding clauses such as no contact outside work or efforts toward a department transfer to an affair-lawsuit mediation or settlement agreement carries less legal risk.