Workplace romances can lead to accusations of poor judgment, breaches of ethics, lost productivity, poor employee morale, favouritism, sexual harassment claims and even workplace violence. These issues keeps HR professionals worry about the possible consequences of employees dating one another. Such concern has led an increasing number of companies to institute "consensual relationship agreements," also known as "love contracts to decrease their liability in case of any issues.
“Love Contracts” should ideally be used to supplement a company’s anti harassment policy, rather than replacing a well-implemented policy against sexual harassment.
There can be two cases of office romance, when a supervisor dates a subordinate or when the dating couple are in the same level. When a supervisor dates a subordinate there can be incidents when the subordinate receives preferential treatment or unjustified promotion and pay raise. When dating people are on the same level, legal problems may arise when peer rating is followed and one worker has inputs to other’s performance, there can be incidents where one worker creates a hostile environment for the co-worker.
There are many clauses that can be added to the contract like; any issues arising through relationship should be settled through arbitration, dating employees are expected to follow certain guidelines, such as refraining from displays of affection at work or work- related events etc.
The implementation of the contract should be made in a proper manner unlike in the case when the employee is forced to sign the contract even without going through it. The policy should be properly incorporated in employee manual and the purpose of the policy and the guidelines should be explained to the employees properly.
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