Gone are the days when romance blossomed mostly at weddings, schools , social gatherings etc. Large presence of women in workplace and long working hours culture in today’s corporate world has resulted in blooming romantic relationships between employees. According to a 2006 survey, about 40% of employees report being involved in a workplace romance at some point in their careers.
Such romantic relationships can interfere with professional performance of the persons concerned. Companies expect the employees to adhere to the code of conduct expected in office. But, employees involved in romantic relationships get tempted to breach the proper code of conduct by unwelcome behavior like public display of affection. Moreover, as almost all posts have highlighted company may face legal problems like sexual harassment if relationship turn sour or a lovestruck employee’s feelings are not reciprocated. Such instance would not only tarnish the image of the firm but also has legal and financial implications on the firm. Favoritism, corruption, lack of focus on work and other problems like awkward feeling when ex-lovers work in same team etc. cloud the firm when employees indulge in romantic relationship at workplace. A positive point in favor of romantic relationships at work might be that it helps the employees to cope up with work pressure and long working hours. But, firms can’t risk being affected by the huge negative implications on work.
According to SHRM survey 2007, more than 70% of organizations reported having neither written nor verbal policies that address workplace romance. Of those companies that did have an office romance policy, only 9% prohibited dating. But still, there are firms which implement love contract that instructs the dating couple to keep their office contact to minimum and prohibit employees from creating any problem related to their dating. The episode of love contract can be analyzed by answering 2 simple words - Why and When .
Why should it be enforced- No doubt , it minimizes the firm’s risks of romantic relationships interfering performance but it does not give guarantee that employees would not pursue their relationships further. Love is a part of human nature and any kind of enforcement doesn’t help much in curbing it.
When should it be enforced – when the employees are in love or when they are not in love? Priyanka Arora (u109078) has clearly mentioned the implications of different cases in her post 'The objective of an organization and a love contract' . But, this is also ambiguous parameter as how will the employer know whether they are in love or not. What if to avoid implications the parties concerned deny their relationship. In our case given, the Hr manager is forcing Pritam and Jagruti to sign the agreement declaring their relationship as romantic based on speculations. There can be a possibility of friendship which is misconstrued as romantic relationship. This is the basic problem with love contract, it is difficult to decide where and when the line is crossed such that the contract should be enforced. There is a possibility that a HR manager can force the employees concerned to sign the contract on the basis of rumors or speculations without proof ( which is generally difficult to get) of their relationship. Such enforcement embarrasses the parties concerned, creates problems in their personal lives and puts a wrong impression of the company on employees. Moreover, a firm can use such forced contracts to fire employees with cause. In all terms ,it is a losing situation for the employee.
Considering these concerns, love contract seems to be largely biased towards the employer giving the full discretion to the employer to enforce it according to his terms. This brings in subjectivity towards treatment of such relationships. For instance, the Hr manager might not be taking action against another colleague of Pritam who might be in romantic relationship only because he is unaware of it.
The more rational solution to this problem of workplace romance is to have clear company policies stating what is expected in workplace and what cannot be tolerated. Though it is difficult to obstruct love but by clear cut policies and implications of its violations can help businesses in minimizing risk.
2 comments:
Although I tend to agree that "love contract" can check favoritism at work place but they cannot be used as a tool to check a dip in performance. I believe romantic relations don't necessarily affect the work performance of employees in most of the cases. Although, trivial it may sound, people engaged in such relations tend to spend maximum time in office and in effect completing their tasks also. In my previous organization, a couple was dating in my team and both had high performance ratings. There might be similar examples to counter that, but organizations have sufficient and stringent performance measurement tools with severe implications where "love contract" may not prove helpful. As been mentioned in the post it involves subjectivity on the part of HR, it would lead to more dissatisfaction and conflicts.
I appreciate your point of view that there may not be a dip in performance. Infact,a positive point in favor of romantic relationships at work which i have mentioned in my post and which is inline with your thinking is that it helps employees to cope up with work pressure and long working hours. But, as i have also mentioned in my post that romantic realtionships can interfere (not necessarily dip) with professional performance of the persons concerned is highly probable. Couples tend to show unwelcome behaviour in a professional setup and might tend to unfair practices like favoritism. This is the problem especially when the manager is dating the sub-ordinate.
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