Love Contract on 'Stage'

As Sigmund Freud had said,”Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.”

Though this line puts love and work together, it is not quite known as to how well the two concepts relate to each other in different spheres of life. Conventionally it has been seen that employers have always tried to curb love at workplace. They have frowned upon the show of affection in workplaces as it is generally known to distract individuals and is detrimental to the quality of work.

The conventional view – there are various cogent arguments towards the motion that love in office is not good. It could be a cause of distraction where the involved couple keeps talking, messaging, spending non-work related time with each other. It could lead to biased behaviour, nepotism or favouritism, especially if the relationship involves a subordinate and his/her superior. And most importantly it could lead to ugly situations in cases where the relationship breaks up mid way. This is where the love contract primarily comes in. There have been various instances where a relationship falls apart and a sexual harassment charge is issued. These situations are harmful for the company and the employer who gets pulled into the controversy for no fault of his. A love contract or a consensual relationship contract is necessary in such events so that the company is under no form of liability. In the story we see how Pritam is asked to sign the contract by the GM(HR).

According to me, anything that affects the standard of work in a workplace is unhealthy for the organisation. I do not see anything wrong in making a person sign a love contract as the company definitely should not bear the brunt of any ugly personal problem. Though there may not be many cases where an employee alleges her ex of sexual harassment just to get back at that person, the possibility always remains. The firm has to take precautions to negate that chance.

Having said that, there is another interesting side to this – the firm may make a person sign such an agreement like the “Dating and Relationship Agreement” in our story and then remove the employee on grounds of insincere work. The company can unfairly take advantage of the agreement and claim that the individual was not working properly because of his relationship. Such angles to the agreement make individuals wary of signing such contracts.

How does this love start? This is a pertinent question which demands some analysis.

Stage 1 -People spend their whole days in office burdened by a lot of work. A romantic association is always attractive for single individuals (pretty often for married people too). It gives them that kick in the workplace that work cannot offer – one may choose to call it the spark! Love in these situations generally starts with some eye contact, some conversations, a lunch or two and then graduates into messages, long conversations, post office outings etc. This is the phase of attraction where an element of lust dominates the behaviour. At this stage the couple may try to hide it from the others in office or may make it known, but this is a dangerous phase (if you know what I am suggesting). This is the perfect timing for a love contract, though I still feel it should be restricted to matters like sexual harassment only or at the most extended to nepotism.

Stage 2 in love is when the bond becomes stronger, the attraction is at its peak and the world is aware of the relationship. This is also potentially dangerous for a company though not as dangerous as the first stage. Once a couple has crossed this stage and reached stage 3 of love, the love contract is totally useless and unnecessary.

Stage 3 - this is characterised by a strong bond, understanding and a lot of care. This is actually a healthy stage as far as the employer or the company is concerned. It makes a person love work more and makes the person put in more hours at work as he/she knows that the other person is there for support etc. Being in love with someone from your office can work to the advantage of the employer in a lot of ways. Often we find employees dying to leave office early, asking for holidays and neglecting work because of the personal lives outside their work. These issues can be resolved if the partner is from the same office and it also gives the couple an incentive to continue working in the same place. These are precisely the reasons why companies like Microsoft (as Shenai has written) are giving incentives to employees for marrying within the organisation.

Thus it is essential to understand the stage in which the love is, to ensure the correct use of the love contract. The initial phases of attraction and lust are potentially dangerous for the company. Relationships which break in this stage are the ones that have maximum chances of getting complicated. Those which reach stage 3 are ones where no contract is necessary and having your spouse or partner at workplace actually increases productivity of the concerned couple.