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͞I used to face problems while working with the Indian Bank as a probationary officer. Some dating
couples (some unmarried & some married!) neglected their duties which irritated the customers and the
other office staffs (including me) were also disturbed.͟

-D. Sarangi, ex-emp, Indian

Bank

͞The dating couples often formed a small coterie and used to take things for a ride. This disturbed us a
lot to discharge our duties. Worse, the relationship of which they used to boast so much did not even
last for six months.͟

-G.K. Das, SSE, Mindtree

Consulting

͞Though we have a very few women employees, yet dating is common here. In a profession like this any
sort of dilly-dallying with the work resulting out of irresponsible behavior draws heavily on our
performance and leads to serious repercussions.͟

-G.C. Barik, Signal Engineer, AAI

The above statements of my friends made me think seriously about the issue of romantic relationships,
love affairs and all sorts of such behaviors displayed at the workplace which in many cases lead to
detrimental aftermaths not only for the organization they work but also for the co-workers. Not
everyone joins a company/organization to find his/her bride/groom. Many participants have mentioned
that the company should not poke its nose into the personal affairs of the employees. To put it bluntly
companies pay us to work in a disciplined manner without disturbing the co-employees and not for
romancing and strengthening love relationships with fellow employees and exhibiting public displays of
affection inside the office premises. The whole world outside is available for such sacred pursuits, then
why to use the dull, dreary and drab office ambience? Moreover do we possess any right to affect the
performance of co-workers who may silently bear the on goings for the sake of friendship or
camaraderie? The even more important question is can we afford to forget the goals of the organization
in the light of our romantic pursuits?

A strong argument to the above logic would be that the people engaged in such pursuits perform
exceedingly well which can only be a myth! Many others, for that matter, also perform excellently who
had never dated anyone! Some participants have suggested that couples find a conducive environment
at the workplace when they are together. Slightly stretching the logic we can say that some people are
homesick and may wish to have the entire family accompany them to the office to perform well. I am
sure that may sound funny to most of us but that͛s how things are. Merely stating with some examples
that such and such couples became star performers in a certain company as a result of aggressive dating
behavior can only be a ͞joke for the day͟. The fact remains that those people who are professional
enough to segregate their personal love life/family life from their academic/professional pursuits would
be the best performers.

%-&

With the emerging IT and other knowledge based industries there is a huge metamorphosis in transition
as far as the work culture is concerned. Many MNC͛s (as mentioned by fellow participants) are
encouraging the employees and also heavily rewarding them for sustaining such relationships. But even
by doing so the firms are only trying to assure good business. They are, in fact, not interested in the love
affairs but just to avoid any problems/issues (which they surely anticipate) come up with such policies. It
would be erroneous on our part to think that this is a way of ͞performance management͟ which is
actually a ͞disaster management͟ for them. There are myriad examples cited by many of the
participants regarding such cases which landed the firms concerned into big troubles. So it just an
initiative to avoid these problems.

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With the advent of globalization the world is getting smaller day by day. Cross cultural work
environment, cross border work assignments have become common features. Even then such issues do
not augur well with all kinds of employees. Some may not be comfortable with love relationships being
extensively practiced at work places. Even in academic environments like professional institutes
(engineering/MBA) such cases are seen often. Many students believe that the primary goal of landing in
a college is to find one͛s soul mate. In the process if some learning also happens then it would be a
bonus! The same behavior gets extended to work places when these people join organizations. How
much can we segregate the ͞work culture͟ and ͞professionalism͟ from ͞love pursuits͟ or ͞personal
issues͟ remains a big challenge.

. "  $// 0(1

Many participants have mentioned that imposing ͞love contracts͟ is not an effective solution to deal
with such problems because it curbs the so called ͞independence/freedom of the dating love souls͟ and
also becomes a ͞shield against future repercussions of a potential sexual harassment case͟. I completely
agree on these views but for entirely different reasons. First, an office /workplace is not a temple
dedicated to Cupid or Aphrodite that we should be so much bothered to exercise and safeguard our
rights for ͞ *͟ here. Second, why should a company doing serious business pay a heed
to what͛s happening in our personal/romantic affairs and bear the brunt for no fault of their own.


%  **$&

As Kanti rightly pointed out that a manager or for that matter any employee cannot be foolish enough
(exception: people like Jagruti) to sign a contract without even going through it. Also companies cannot
force the employees to sign contracts after contracts for every issue that pops up. Though I do not dare
to prescribe a ͞Panacea͟ to resolve such complex issues encompassing delicate strands of human
relationships yet I feel that there are rather broader and deeper implications of these which we need to
focus on in order to arrive at any effective methods to govern such behaviors at work places.