Love..what??

This discussion brings to my mind an interesting case that happened in the school my mother was working in. Two teachers were romantically involved and were even engaged. But later problems cropped up between them. And a case was registered against the male teacher for mental harassment and assault. Ultimately the Principal told both of them to resign as this was creating negative publicity for the school (since this incident had come in all the local newspapers).

Probably this is the main worry of all companies and hence the love contract would have been apt for this situation.

However, we need to see what will happen to the contract once the two partners break up or worse still if one partner refuses to acknowledge the break up. And how do you know whether two people are romantically involved or are just having a casual fling? So, the obvious question is to which persons do you actually give this contract ? And how do you define “romantic behavior within the organization“ , as stated in the contract?

Another major concern for organizations is that favouritism will be shown on account of your personal relationship. Again, I find this very ambiguous. Doesn’t favouritism prevail in organizations anyway? And even if it is a one sided liking favouritism can happen. The case of sexual harassment is also rather weak . Consensual sexual relationship can be later deemed as sexual assault. Also, if a woman is sexually harassed, according to this contract instead of getting support from the organization she will be most likely dismissed. This approach to this problem is pure cowardice to say the least.

I see the love contract is a desperate attempt on the part of the employers to control the employees’ behaviour. There should be guidelines and unwritten rules within the culture of the organization on the kind of conduct expected from the individuals rather than making contracts that attempt to control individual’s personal life.