you don't dip your pen in company ink

English

Alternative forms

• you don't dip your pen in the company's ink
• you don't dip your pen in the company inkwell
• you don't dip your pen in the inkwell

Proverb

you don't dip your pen in company ink

1. One should avoid romantic or sexual relationships in the workplace.
   • 1998 September 28, Roxanne Roberts, “Men's Bad Rep: Just a Bad Rap?”, in Washington Post, retrieved 13 Dec. 2008, page A1:

     "In my job, young hot things have been coming up to me for years," says Fletcher, the retired pilot. "You don't dip your pen in company ink."

   • 2006 July 27, W. Blake Gray, “Ravens to Riches”, in San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved 13 Dec. 2008:

     It wasn't money that attracted his current wife, Madeleine Deininger, who started working for Ravenswood in 1985. . . . "We had the policy that you don't dip your pen in company ink. We stayed good friends for a long time," Peterson says.

Synonyms

• don't shit where you eat
• you don't fish off the company pier
• you don't get your nookie where you get your cookies
• don't get your honey where you make your money
• don't get your meat where you get your bread
• don't fish off the company dock

Translations

one should avoid romantic or sexual relationships in the workplace

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 喺度食唔好喺度痾／喺度食唔好喺度疴 (hai² dou⁶ sik⁶ m⁴ hou² hai² dou⁶ o¹) (slang, vulgar)

  Mandarin: 兔子不吃窩邊草／兔子不吃窝边草 (zh) (tùzi bù chī wō biān cǎo)

• Finnish: ei pidä syödä kuormasta (don't eat from the payload)
• German: Bürofick bringt Unglück (vulgar)
• Hungarian: házinyúlra nem lövünk (hu)
• Portuguese: onde se ganha o pão, não se come a carne
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: donde tengas la olla no metas la polla (Spain, vulgar)
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

See also

• mix business with pleasure