A view from both the sides....

A workplace is a place undoubtedly not only to work in. It is a place where one has to show some kind of cohesion and in fact a great level of teamwork and friendship for success. Interactions do culminate in relationships and it is kind of inevitable. Falling in love in workplace is a common occurrence and as long as limits are not crossed I believe it is out of the purview of the company to interfere into the personal relationships. Basically there are two things the employer wants. First no damage done due to these personal relationships or anything of the sort from the employees (being defensive). Second is obviously to maximise its own profit even at the cost of exploiting the employee through well made contracts as we saw in the previous forum on intellectual property and work for hire (being offensive). Here the case is that the employer plays defensive avoiding any sort of hindrances and unnecessary disturbances from the employee relationships to its interests.

Love contract is a topic with both the sides equally accountable to each other. It will be wrong to say that it is necessary and again we will be wronged if we say it is unnecessary. It is necessary when we can actually see the performance deteriorating due to excess involvement in personal relationships and secondly if it is getting objectionable from the other employers. Extreme cases have lead to cases of sexual harassment and dragged the company to the court many a times creating irreparable damage to its reputation. There can be various other effects like corruption, favouritism etc as mentioned in earlier posts. In such cases it becomes necessary to impose love contract.

Also there may be a situation where company is trying to get rid of someone deliberately by forcing Love contract (Employee exits by not signing the contract or eventually through constructive discharge). The employee becomes a scapegoat because of his involvement in a personal relationship in the company. From a simple perspective, it is unfair for the company to interfere in the personal relationships of the employees. There is a thin line of difference between the circumstances which decide whether to impose love contract on the employees or not. As long as the relationship is maintained within the corridors of decency in the workplace and there is no evident degradation in the work efficiency or anything that hampers the company’s profitability and reputation, it should not be imposed. But when things seem fishy it will be safe for the company to go for such a contract. The critical thing here is to what extent a company waits to impose this contract. Basically it depends to a great extent on the company’s culture and its level of trust in its employees. Ultimately it is the kind of culture that the company inculcates into its employees which can be a possible solution to avoid situations leading to enforcement of love contract on the employees.