Love Contract:-Bridging love and work??

It would be, but a trite cliché to remark that today’s work life has become confoundedly hectic, a sinister labyrinth of intricacies, where your roles and responsibilities in the organization hoard pretty early in one’s career. Seldom does one have the time to pursue his other, more favorable interests. Keeping the agenda of the discussion in mind, one of those prime interests is “love”, ofcourse. The usual meeting places of romances are increasingly becoming passé-vestibules of libraries, temples, marketplace, or even the eternal emblem of affairs, the parks .Simply put it, new generation mass does not have the time to pursue these noble interests as freely as the long gone earlier days, as they are more often than not, assimilated in their work stations. In such constrained scenarios, where else can cupid strike, other than his/her organization itself! Romantic proclivity is a common thing in workplace these days, and with sound argument too. The couple gets to see his/her better half daily in office, share their work, understand and appreciate the complexities involved and can mutually solve them in the best earnest, which marks the touchstone of a healthy, happy and contended life for both. Sweetly timed, sincere relations culminate in holy nuptial knots in many occasions. As pointed out in earlier posts, organizations do encourage such relationships by offering perks, bonuses and free trips. It bodes well for the organization, as the married couple are more loyal to them and add value.
But alas, this is only the brighter side of the picture. The grimmer part of it unleashes ugly consequences. These relationships often lead to biased-ness, favoritism and bypassing true quality talent in favour of the loved one. Often, office romances form the pie of grapevine stories. Suddenly, the couple gets subjected to embarrassment and crowd frights. Then, there are people who can’t separate work and love, get affected by its entailing fallouts, which affects their productivity, and enshrouds their career goals. Moreover, failed relationships lead to bitter feelings of acrimony, green-eyed jealousy and a nauseating pain, which many people succumb to. Seeking vendetta, the once-loving partner lashes out at the other, and channelizes his resentment through harassment, defamation and litigation. Often employees engage in extramarital affairs and sexual favours to shorten the ladder up the hierarchy. These are dangerous liaisons, which jeopardize work ethics, the congenial working environment and impose serious HR issues. Circa 1995, when he U.S White House was left running for covers after the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky case, or the more recently heard affair of Nicolas Sarcozy and Carla Brunie, or for that matter Silvio Berlusconi and ace golfer Tiger Woods’s rampant sexcapades.
Analyzing both prospects, I feel that such love contracts are beneficial, mostly to organization involved. It leaves them free of any liabilities whatsoever, due to the above mentioned unfortunate incidents. These are covenants, which act as guidelines for behavior of romantic pairs in the workplace. This document necessitates the signing of both partners, acting as their consent to abide by the organizational rules, breaching which they would be liable to disciplinary action. Now there are a few aspects to look under the scanner. One, signing such a contract would make the couple accept their relationship and get recognized as romantically involved, which many would shy away from. This might induce a negative effect, whereby couples become more secretive in their affair. Second, whenever appraisal and performance measures are applicable, this contract would be borne in mind by the higher officials, which can often be detrimental to the romantically involved employee’s career growth, even if he’s competent and deserving. Third, these love contracts play a huge setback to same-sex couples like gays and lesbians, who perceive that their feelings are out of commonality, and profane in the society at large. And above all, these love contracts are still in their infancy stage. In fact, a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Workplace Romance Survey found that most companies surveyed do not even have a formal, written, romance policy. For most, it is still an understood writ, not in writing. I doubt whether these “mandatory” contracts could smell large-scale success. There can be other constructive ways to deal with these sensitive issues. One could be formulate a sound, zero-tolerance harassment policy doctrinated in the HR framework. Let this policy guidelines be well aware of in the minds of the employees. Another option could be conducting periodic training sessions for the managers who are involved in such datings. The kind of stressful job they handle needs to kept in mind when counseling them. Marriage or romance counselor on an anonymous basis could be effective in avoiding a fallout. The other convenient step might be to remove the manager from his post to some other department, where his/her partner is not working. Infact, in some corporates, it is mandatory that the spouses work in different areas in the same company, to separate their work from their relation.
I would strongly disagree to any prohibition on romance in the workplace. After all, love is the sweetest and the most bitter of all feelings, and nothing can be more virtuous than pursuing love. But then, given the concomitant aftermaths of love and work at cross-roads, the thin line between love and work needs to be identified. And to know, when to not cross it.