They say about P.G. Wodehouse — the creator of pretty girls and their persistent paramours — that he never crossed the They say about P.G. Wodehouse – the creator of pretty girls and their persistent paramours – that he never crossed the thin line dividing romance and sex. The closest he came to that was in a book title – Ice in the Bedroom. In the real world, however, the ice has long been broken. The Mills & Boons have become Harlequins; the bodice rippers have become serial strippers.

Nowhere is this change more evident than in the workplace. ‘Women outnumber men’ once made headlines only when it came to queues before election booths. (It still does when a new generation of journalists gets into the business.) But now, in sectors like business process outsourcing (BPO), women outnumber men from the very beginning. Love can flourish.

It does. Remarkably, in India too, where you don’t hear people talking too much about it. They do instead. Says an article in a financial daily: “When it comes to dating in the office, India is a cool place to work.” A study by Randstad, an Amsterdam-based staffing company, found that in India 70 per cent of employees reported workplace romantic liaisons, compared with Japan (33 per cent) and Luxembourg (36 per cent). One of the main reasons for this is the absence of any clear-cut policies barring romantic rendezvous.

Globally, the Randstad survey finds that 64 per cent of the respondents indicate they meet up with co-workers outside working hours and 71 per cent have close friendships with colleagues, especially in Brazil (93 per cent) and Hong Kong (91 per cent). On average, 57 per cent admit romantic relationships occur in the workplace from time to time. This happens more often in China, India and Malaysia. Employees in India (63 per cent) and Luxembourg (65 per cent) strongly believe romantic relationships interfere with performance at work.

What is the reality on the ground? A survey by online jobs site CareerBuilder finds that 36 per cent of Indian workers dated someone who worked for the same company, and 37 per cent went on to marry the person. A danger signal: 34 per cent had an affair with a co-worker when one of the pair was married. Say Jane Merrill and David Knox, authors of Finding Love from 9 to 5: “You must remember that the majority of these affairs are of short duration.”

That could be problematic – for the individuals and the organisation. So what are companies doing about it? In the US, the Shangri La for lawyers, they have found a solution. They call it the Love Contract (see box). Like a prenup (pre-nuptials), it spells out who does what when the spell wears out. But it can still be tricky.

“If there is any question about the thorniness of these issues, one need only look to the high-profile case of Elaine Pao, who filed a gender discrimination suit against her former employer (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers) alleging that she worked in a culture steeped in gender discrimination,” reports Business & Legal Resources. “Pao also alleged that she was pressured into an affair with a married partner and that after she broke it off, he retaliated against her by diminishing her role and freezing her out. Of course, a love contract for employees engaged in extramarital affairs is most certainly a bridge too far, but the point is made: The exact allegations that arose in the Pao case could have arisen in a situation where the employees were not engaged in an affair and could have been mitigated by either a love contract or a non-fraternisation policy.”

HR firm Adecco warns that like relationships, office politics are complex and nuanced. “As lovesick as someone may make you feel, remember that you're not a bird or a bee – you're a person who needs to earn a living. So you have to ask yourself, is his or her love worth it?” There are other ways to learn about the birds and the bees.

CUPID CLAUSES

The employee love contract

A love contract is an agreement signed by two employees in a consensual romantic relationship memorialising that the relationship is voluntary and not coerced (its analogue with regard to sexual encounters can now be found on the campuses of many US colleges and universities)

Such contracts feature:

• A recitation of the company’s sexual harassment policy;
• A declaration that the relationship is voluntary and that the employees will act professionally at all times while the relationship is ongoing;
• A statement that the employees will not participate in any decisions that could affect the other’s work, both during and after the relationship ends (if applicable); and
• An agreement that if a conflict of interest is identified, one of the employees may have to be transferred or demoted
• Some contracts also cover the eventuality of a breakup by having the individuals attest that in such cases, one of them must choose to resign or, if available, accept a transfer

Source: BLR