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 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

Origin

In 1938 Walt Disney hosted a party for his staff at the Norconian Resort to celebrate the success of Snow White. At that time most, if not all the animators were male, but the ink and paint department that added the color the the animation cells were mostly female. In fact Walt met his wife when she worked in the ink and paint department. As the date of the party approached, Walt and Roy “sent out a memo that if you were in animation you weren’t supposed ‘to dip your pen in the company’s ink and paint’ which was their way of saying, ‘behave yourself with the Ink and Paint girls.’”.

Synonyms

• don't **** where you eat
• you don't fish off the company pier
• you don't get your nookie where you get your cookies