Love Contractually…..

There's something inherently creepy about the contract thing to me, and I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it might be that I don't think management should be proactively involved in office romances because, the more of a paper trail you leave in writing, the more likely something could haunt you later in life, even if it's taken out of context.

While it is often necessary for supervisors to get involved reactively, when and if problems arise from relationships, I'm uncomfortable with intrusion into personal lives with a "love contract." In fact such contracts encourage people to gossip at their work place. Speculating who’s dating who. Also, In a country like ours, where cast, sect, creed, colour play such an important role even while in deciding whom we befriend with, it’s really not so difficult to imagine a situation where the employee would not want to disclose his relation with a co-worker to others. How can you then forcefully ask him/her to sign the contract? In such a situation, wouldn’t the concept of a love contract fail?

Additionally, if there's this huge explosion of office dating happening, wouldn't managing "love contracts" become a large enough task that it would detract from the actual work being done and decrease company efficiency? I suppose one could argue that it could increase efficiency by preventing issues that could arise from office romance problems, but I don't think a piece of paper would really change the problem behaviours (i.e., minimizing or eliminating the teenage-ish responses to break-ups). Are people really going to act more maturely and work-appropriately while they're dating and after they break up because they signed something? I doubt it.

I believe that if a superior was dating a subordinate, and suppose they eventually breakup, the subordinate should be given an option of reporting to a different supervisor. The management structure/hierarchy should be adjusted if such type of relationship develops. You don’t need a ‘Love Contract’ to enforce this.

To talk about myself, I have worked in Infosys for 2 years and I haven't ever dated a co-worker! That said, I wouldn't have been opposed to dating a co-worker. I am sure all those who have worked in an organisation prior to joining XIM, would agree to the fact that you probably end up spending most of your time with your co-workers than anyone else. More so, if the employees are working under continuous stress, they are bound to get close their co-workers. It’s perfectly understandable if they seek comfort from the people close to them and eventually date them. But I see no logic in signing a love contract for/against it. According to me it’s a lose- lose situation for both the employer and the employee.