Office romances are commonplace now, what with long working hours, high-pressure situations and close proximity with colleagues. Most offices are quite lax about rules governing these personal relationships.
As long as the employees meet their work objectives efficiently, the boss seldom interferes in their personal lives. Often, light-hearted teasing is a natural consequence of such relationships.
Vineeta Limaye, team member at a BPO, narrates, "My boss refused to allocate adjacent cubicles to my fianc and #233; and me, the reason given was that we wouldn't concentrate on our work if we sat next to each other. It was in good spirit though.
" Boss's quandary Some couples keep their relationship a secret and work with their usual efficiency, like Preeti Vijayakar and Kunal Shah, who are software professionals. The problem arises when the personal relationship encroaches the professional sphere and work is affected.
The boss is in a Catch-22 situation. Getting the people involved to quit is hardly an option, because good employees are hard to come by.
However, missed deadlines and mistakes, because the couple refuses to work on time, throw the project off schedule. Mitali Desai, team leader in a software company faced a potentially explosive situation when a couple in her team got involved.
They spent a lot of time together in office and disappeared for long hours without informing her. This affected team discipline.
Things reached a head when the company had to incur losses because of missed deadlines. The two even covered up for one other's mistakes.
Ultimately, Desai's boss had to intervene and speak to them. Desai says, "My boss told them that this could be detrimental to their careers.
They told him not to interfere in their personal lives. But things got worse.
Eventually the man was moved to another project." Quality at stake Another downside to this is when the couple's personal problems affect their productivity.
Michelle D'Souza, marketing manager in a travel agency, did face a similar situation recently. A girl from her team was involved with a man from another team.
Their parents opposed their relationship. The girl unburdens her emotional distress to D'Souza and has become inefficient in her work.
If she is pulled up, she garners sympathy by citing her personal problems. D'Souza explains, "The man is good at his work.
Talking to the girl is useless. I cannot ask either of them to quit.
I'm contemplating moving the girl to another team, probably with a demotion, so that she wakes up to the reality. It is an unpalatable task for me, but I have to do it.
" Being firm Unfortunately, most companies do not have a clear Human Resources policy for such issues and the boss needs to deal with the impasse. Desai advises, "Speak to the people involved and ask them to pull up their socks.
Let the annual performance appraisal reflect their inefficiency. But then is it enough? "If that doesn't work, move them to different departments.
Only in extreme cases, should the Human Resources department feel the need to ask either of them or both to quit.".
- Yahoo News
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