Organised Romance..

Interaction between people in the work place is a requisite in order to carry out business effectively. The employer thus encourages its employees to build healthy mutual relationships by sponsoring team outings, conducting team building activities etc. A few of those budding relationships might eventually transform into romantic relationships which is both expected and acceptable.

Regulating the behaviour of such couples in office is important in order to maintain sanctity of the professional body. The handbook of policies given to each employee when he/she joins the organisation contains explicit clauses that prohibit indulging in romantic/sexual behaviour within the organisation. As mentioned in the case, Pritam and Jagruti used to engage in inappropriate behaviour during office parties which is intolerable, particularly for a software firm where client visits are frequent and impressing the client is of immense importance. In this case, warning the couple regarding their intolerable behaviour and threat of disciplinary action as per the clauses mentioned in the handbook of policies would have been sufficient. Making them sign a separate agreement was not required for this purpose.

As Debashis has rightly pointed out, not only couples engaged in a romantic relationship but also married couples or even good friends are equally prone to carrying out favoritism or nepotism. If Intermediaries Technologies Ltd was really concerned about these social problems in its work place it would have dealt with it in a more suitable manner.

In some ways, it helps if married couples or couples engaged in romantic relationships work for the same organisation. These employees develop a level of comfort within the organisation; do not switch jobs frequently and thus become loyal to the employer. Many organisations promote marriages between its employees by offering incentives to the couple. However, certain measures such as assigning separate projects, removing all direct/indirect reporting relationship etc need to be taken so as to avoid the moral, ethical or social problems that might arise. Intermediaries Technologies could have dealt with the issue by taking steps similar to the ones mentioned above and could have avoided the bad internal publicity that it might get if Pritam and Jagruti happen to make the contents of the agreement known to other employees.

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