Indeed, I would suggest that it is an important and enduring reality and that, within bounds of propriety and good taste, romance in the workplace should be accepted rather than forbidden. Whether a liaison was a voluntary, mature choice made by two adults or an abuse of power by a supervisor requesting sexual favors is hard to prove in retrospect. A claim that an employee was too intimidated to challenge the sexually charged work environment created by the supervisor is even harder to disprove. Whether a consensual sexual relationship will stay out of the office won't be known until it is too late. However, as a lawyer advising clients as to how to limit liability in an ever more litigious employment setting, I don't recommend it.
Society demands two mutually exclusive things from employers.
First, the workplace has become a place where workers bring much of their personal lives, as a central point of their existence. Employers must walk a tightrope between an emotionally rich environment and a legally prohibited one. A proper sexual harassment policy that is consistently enforced can help maintain that fine distinction. Such a procedure can have a chilling effect against the raising of complaints. Especially because many claims of harassment are proven solely by one person's word against another's, such a policy is ill advised.