Love Contract

Romantic relationships at the office can be a very tricky issue. An employer obviously would like to have an environment where people feel friendly and are comfortable with each other. The need for rules and regulations are bound to make working for an organization less appealing. However, it is important that when a relationship does unfold, it does not affect the decision-making process of either of the involved individuals and, more importantly, does not affect the other employees. This is what causes such a dilemma when it comes to romantic alliances in the workplace.

People work longer hours today, which creates fewer opportunities to meet others outside of the office. Many people meet at work because that’s where they spend the majority of their time. It would seem that the most common place for socializing would be at work, where people with similar interests are together for the majority of their time. Therefore, “it’s no surprise that budding romances blossom among those with whom we spend the most time,” said Leemor Amado, an associate practice consultant at American Management Association (AMA). “Company initiatives that foster employee socialization, work teams that bring different groups of people together to collaborate, as well as casual dress codes may help to create environments where colleagues feel more comfortable dating.”(amanet.org)

However, there are special risks in any sexual or romantic relationship between individuals in inherently unequal positions of authority, and parties in such a relationship assume those risks. In a college context, such positions could include teacher and student or senior faculty and junior faculty. In a work environment it could be a supervisor and employee. Because of the potential for conflict of interest, exploitation, favouritism, and bias, such relationships may undermine the real or perceived integrity of the supervision and evaluation provided.

Therefore as a minimum, every organization needs to have a policy designed to regulate dating or office romances. There should also be certain rules and regulations designed to protect the company against sexual harassment liability and ensure a professional work environment. Following are the issues to be taken into consideration in designing such a policy -

1. Acceptability — the policy should exactly define what types of relationships will and will not be tolerated. Most human resource professionals recommend establishing policies that prohibit supervisors from dating a direct report due issues such as have been discussed above. Policies may also note that staff members are expected to behave professionally and that romantic trysts should be kept out of the work environment.
2. Penalize, if need be — It should define what actions will be undertaken if the policies are violated — transfer, demotion, termination.
3. Zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment — It should be clearly stated that any alleged sexual harassment will be handled in a legally proper manner. Managers must make employees aware that the company has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment. The policy should provide adequate information about the consequences of such behaviour. Companies may even require that their employees sign documentation indicating that they understand and will abide by the policy.
4. Privacy – The policies should never overstep boundaries of employee privacy. A company needs to make it abundantly clear that workplace performance is its primary concern.
5. Open communications — the policies should be accommodating and request employees to disclose a relationship if it becomes romantic. This may be a difficult task for employees if the penalties for such a relationship are severe. If, on the other hand, the company is willing to work with the couple then it is more likely that they will communicate their involvement in an appropriate manner.

Thus, if employers should introduce a policy to regulate dating or office romance of employees, the employees should also maintain the dignity of the employer and treat office as professional work environment and disclose their relationship.