The truth about Love contracts..

“The movement of Progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from status to contract”
-Sir Henry Sumner Maine

As participants of progressive societies, uncertainties of any kind disquiet us. Perhaps, that’s the reason why we are increasingly becoming slaves of contracts that promise to reduce the anxiety of an unknown future. The environment in workplaces have changed dramatically, and with any new association with an organization, we are now inundated with clauses with jargons like non-compete, non-solicitation, non-authority, non-dealing, exclusive employment – an overkill of contracts!

For those of us who care to read the finer details, these contracts are an attempt to circumvent any possible situation that might be detrimental to the interests of the employer. Considering the fact that most companies have attorneys at their disposal, it is plain to see that these highly paid lawyers would use their imagination to the fullest to service the needs of their clients. One such apparently bizarre, but increasingly popular covenant is the “Love Contract”.

A love contract policy or consensual relationship agreement establishes workplace guidelines for dating or romantically involved coworkers. This policy is designed to limit the liability of an organization if the couple decides to end the romantic relationship. The issue here is not of an ethical nature and whether it is moral to have an extramarital affair in office; firms generally see this as a liability management problem. Specifically, companies are concerned about what impact this behavior will have on the company, and on other employees.

While workplace romances can create claims of nepotism and awkward situations for other employees, soured romances might be fraught with lawsuits and revenge motivated complains. Under such situations, the HR personnel need to tread a delicate path, and address the issues in a humane manner. They have to ensure that any undesirable behavior does not jeopardize other people’s professional careers. They also need to ensure that high ranking employees do not abuse their position of power to ensnare their subordinates into undesired relationships.

Most of us might brush off these contracts as ridiculous. After all, aren’t we all adults and capable of making mature decisions for ourselves?.Perhaps, writing down contracts to legitimize workplace romances is bad, but handling litigation and harassment claims in the future is even worse. This voluntary disclosure can be one step to ensure that no one takes advantage of others, and transparency is maintained in the workplace.

Some conventional benefits of this unconventional bargain:
• Can be useful if the company does not have an effective reporting and investigation policy
• Designed to solve the litigation issues if any one of the two parties decides to sue the other, or blame each other as a fallout of a soured relationship
• An acknowledgement of the relationship will make the two parties be more responsible, since they are aware that their activities are under the scrutiny of the employer
• Might be necessary for the company to ward off liabilities from harassment claims
• Dating employees agree to treat each professionally if the relationship ends, and breakups do not vitiate the office environment.
• Both employees would be aware of their liabilities and refrain from partisanship and conflicts of interest.