A Question of Conflict of Interest

Some Questions

What is the scope of a "Love Contract"? Does it always have to be one with romantic implications? From an Organisation's point of view, other than "avoid any romantic and / or sexual behavior within the organization" are there any other clauses that set it apart from any other such agreement that may be have to be forwarded to a parent & sibling or 2 siblings working in the same organization?

Forms of Love

To be limited by thinking in terms of a romantic relationship only may not give us a holistic view of Love; after all there definitely is Love between between parents and siblings and between siblings too. For that matter there can be Love between close friends too. Thus Love, as we know of it can imply any a strong positive emotion of regard and affection. Do Organizations go around forwarding contracts to all such people who are potentially in Love and working in the same Organizations?

Behavior Control Through Contract!!

The statement about avoiding romantic and/or sexual behavior within the organization may look important but may actually not be that significant in any Organizational context. It may sound that I am not being sensible but think of this, do you really need to sign a contract to behave in a socially acceptable way maintaining the implicit decorum of the place where you are in? First of all, Love or no Love there can be a range of unacceptable behavioral cases which are always implicit while working in any Organization. Do we sign contracts to make sure that we do not start a physical brawl with another employee or we shout and holler with colleagues or do any such thing that may be socially inappropriate in the context? Generally the behavioral aspect is implicitly understood or taken care of through some simple statement relating to disciplinary behavior in employment contracts. Any sane or rational human being is not expected to involve in any behavior that may be inappropriate in the context. Hence, although it is one of the clauses of the contract under discussion, I do not believe that this is the major purpose of the contract.

Conflict of Interest

Not always do Love relationships have to be bound by contracts. There are multiple instances where parent-siblings, 2 siblings, married couples and committed souls work in the same Organization but never come across such a situation where they are forwarded a contract. I know of a lot of such cases but probably the most significant one for me is that in my first job at Technologies, I and the person with whom I am committed romantically from our college days, joined together and was trained and posted in same locations. It definitely does not take a KGB/CIA to know of such cases but let alone a "Dating and Relationship Agreement" we were never even approached by anyone and questioned or briefed about our relation in the context of the Organization for the 1 year while we worked together. We worked in different Business Units and could not, in any way, influence each others professional position in the organization. As far as consuming each others time and thus affecting performance is concerned, it solely depends on the sincerity of the individuals. A individual who knows no one else in the organisation personally may end up wasting office hours doing nothing.

In the case of Pritam & Jagruti, what becomes significant is that Pritam is an HR Manager & Jagruti is a Senior Software Engineer; as per the implicit indications in the case, there is scope of direct influence in this context. Being an HR Manager, Pritam could influence Jagruti's position in the Organization by offering her certain favors, divulging certain information which she may not be entitled to know otherwise or even influence in some way processes like performance appraisals, etc that will have major implications in her carrier growth. The way I see it, this is the primary reason of concern for the employer and hence there emerges a need of a contract that, more than controlling such actions, actually makes the individuals involved, very conscious about how they are dealing with each other in the professional context. Even if there was no agreement, probably they would not have involved in any kind of influence on professional positions but by asking them to sign such a contract the company essentially make them very conscious about any action that may involve the other person; it forces them to think twice before taking any step which may involve the other.

This probably is the reason why such a contract, which apparently may not seem very logical, may actually be required in cases where there are conflicts of interest, be it a romantic relationship or a blood relationship or any other human relationships for that matter.