Contract Love or Love Contract

After reading this story the first thing which comes to my mind is how can a GM HR force someone to sign on a contract without giving him a fair opportunity to read and scrutinize it before deciding whether or not to sign it. The workplace is no different from a college where there is rampant gossip about relationships but this does not warrant someone to jump into any conclusion regarding a romantic relationship and draft a contract for the same. The story doesn't tell us about anything more than frequent exchanges of sms, long hours spent over phone and expensive gifts for occasions. These aren't enough to justify a romantic relationship and also no one can prove such behavior. You cannot be so certain about how long the couple chat over the phone or how many sms they exchange, at least the GM HR seems not in a position to know this. This behavior of GM HR seems irrational. He also resorts to black mailing Pritam citing his pending promotion and onsite opportunity. It might have happened that someone who didn't want Pritam to be promoted would have influenced the GM HR to this extent; its quite possible.

Also, looking at the contract, I feel its not adequate enough in commenting on what exactly is the performance criteria expected out of the two people if they agree that they are romantically involved. I think it goes much beyond saying that every employee in an organization should strive for the organizations excellence keeping his personal life at bay. Even otherwise, people who are not romantically involved may show some lag in their performance during some personal crises in their lives. People's performance almost always reflects from their personal lives and no organization is free from it. I think the way the contract has been spelt out is a little unfair. Two people can be romantically linked to each other and still continue to perform in the organization. It may also happen that their performance enhances due to this. It might be otherwise also.

What I feel is that the manager should have first talked to both the persons to find out if they are romantically involved or not. Assuming that they were romantically involved and assuming that the cause of him calling Pritam and Jagruti into the office was really some bad performance or negligence to work, I think he should have first talked to them regarding this situation and should have mentored them before asking them to sign on the contract. Also, Pritam and Jagruti could have reasoned with him with all respect discussing every aspect of the contract before signing it.

While entering the chamber Pritam chose not to sit beside Jagruti and kind of avoided her which may show that the two persons wanted to keep their relationship under wraps. This might also show that they were not exactly into any romantic relationship. The mention by the GM HR that Pritam was considered for a promotion also suggests that his performance hadn't deteriorated in the past and wasn't affected by any relationship with Jagruti. There is no such performance indicator for Jagruti except that at the end the GM HR says she has to resign. It might mean that she was under performing but it might not be because of this relationship. It might just be an excuse to fire her or might be a tactic to keep Pritam who might be a start performer. The story leaves a lot of avenues open to be considered while dealing with it. At the end I feel that Pritam did the right thing to go through the contract first before signing it and getting his promotion. It wasn't also sure that even after signing this contract he would still be promoted. Also, being in contract would have tremendously impacted both the individuals personal and professional lives as any slip at work could now well be attributed to their relationship.

Soumendu Mohan Samal (u109137)