It isn’t surprising, given the fact that the time one spends at workplace, often working in close proximity to colleagues, customers or clients, one ends up making friends and at times even getting into relationships.
It has also been seen that many office relationships are doomed from the start and there are a number of factors that place strain on the fledgling romances, therefore any employee considering making a move on a colleague should do so with caution especially if the other person is on a different grade. The problems generally occur when the parties concerned try to keep their relationship a secret or, through accusations of favoritism by their colleagues.
In such a scenario the employers will also have concerns. The employees’ performance gets affected because of distractions, tensions and even jealousy arising from the workplace romance and this could lead to claims of sexual harassment and discrimination.
I believe it is draconian in modern times to ban relationships between colleagues completely and it would be impossible to manage that as well. A better option for the organisation would be to have some control over workplace liaisons.
We know that the love contract is a required document signed by the two employees in a consensual dating relationship that declares that the relationship is by consent.
The love contracts generally make negotiation the only grievance process available to the participants in the office romance and it eliminates the possibility of a later lawsuit when the relationship ends. It also relieves the company of any liability during the time period of the office romance prior to the signing of the contract.
A love contract will not solve the litigation issue in such a scenario. Moreover, employees can always charge that they were pressured into signing the love contract at a sensitive time during their employment. Additionally, any love contract policy requires disclosure of a romantic relationship to the HR department. Couples of same sex and people who want to keep their relationship secret are unlikely to disclose the relationship to public scrutiny. I would prefer the organisation to handle it differently rather than a love contract policy and a love contract.
The organisation should be clear with its guidelines on office romances. These guidelines should be made known to employees and followed every time. It should able to determine what it considers to be unacceptable behavior or misconduct in the workplace, which may be because of inappropriate physical contact or unacceptable use of language or any such means wherein the employees are found to violate the guidelines.
Companies can include policies to prevent those in a relationship to work closely together and from managing or promoting each other, this in turn would make it a equal opportunity player.
Any breach of the above policy should be a considered a misconduct issue rather than a breach of contract. Equal opportunities policies should make it explicit that everyone will be treated fairly and on merit, thereby leaving no room for favoritism or victimisation occurring during romantic relationships.
If a fallout from the office romance affects the workplace then HR department in conjunction with their manager would have to address the issue.
In fact I would cite an example of my erstwhile employer TCS.TCS has a policy at place wherein the employees are paid bonuses if they marry someone from within the organisation. This has been done primarily to retain the employees and at the same time it builds a sense of loyalty among employees towards the organisation. It also motivates them to perform better.
The employees should also be responsible for their behavior at workplace. They should check the rules on romantic relationships in their employment contract and the organization’s policies, be honest with their boss about the romance because trust is fundamental to any successful working relationship, remain professional and show respect to colleagues and their romantic partner while in the workplace and more than anything else they should remember that they have been hired to do a job.
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