you don't dip your pen in company ink

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 relationships in the workplace.
   • 1998, Roxanne Roberts, "Men's Bad Rep: Just a Bad Rap?," Washington Post, 28 Sep., p. A1 (retrieved 13 Dec. 2008):

     "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, W. Blake Gray, "Ravens to Riches," San Franciso Chronicle, 27 Jul. (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