Are "unwanted" texts ok?

With all the snarl in Woodstock recently over an inappropriate text message, you'd think that employees everywhere would be super-cautious about not only texting, but to whom they direct texts.

Let's say, just for example, you (a male employee) have a new female employee working for you.  Right away, workplace rules and etiquette tell you that she is off-limits. It just doesn't matter how attracted to her you are. Or how much you believe she might be attracted to you.

Or maybe the roles are reversed. Maybe "you" are a female supervisor, and you've got a new (male) employee working for you whom you'd like to "supervise" a little more closely. Maybe ... a lot more closely... Does that only happen in dime novels?

Back to the male-supervisor, female-subordinate example. Aside from the inherent risks in workplace relationships, how are you going to find out whether there is any mutual interest?

One way would be to politely open the subject, in a way that you darned well hope will not backfire on you and result in a workplace harassment action.

Another way would be to get her fired and then offer a little after-hours consolation and sympathy. Of course, if she figures out that it was you who fired her, she just might not be very receptive to your advances .... err, offers of sympathy.

Another possibility is that you might send her a text message. What? This one is really high risk. Electronic messages don't vanish into thin area after they are sent. There is no way to say "Oops" and retrieve them.

What might you say in a text? What might you infer? What might be read between the lines? Would a little banter work? What about the ol' double entendre?

Just food for thought here....