Workplace romances: Who knows what's going on

Few people tell their bosses or team-mates if they’re dating someone in the office, an ISB survey shows.

A group of management students at the Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad have conducted a study on ‘Relationships in Offices’, and their implications on Indian companies. The study largely focuses on the Indian IT Industry. Office romances are discouraged in most western countries; however, there seems to be no evidence of such discouragement in India.

On the contrary, there is a perception that many companies encourage this trend as it accrues benefits to the organisation through reduced attrition, higher employee engagement, satisfied and happy employees through longer working hours at the workplace.

The study was conducted out of curiosity about the difference in the way the western world treats of the topic of ‘Intra-Office’ romances and the way it is looked at in India. Global HR policies are being followed in these companies more or less uniformly — especially on such issues.

This is more-so a reason to have specific policies on such topics, and to communicate them effectively to all employees. Although not welcome at any time, lawsuits — especially set against the backdrop of the slowdown, can cause unnecessary costs to be added to the company.

Delving a little deeper into the issue, it was noticed that in Western economies, office romances prove a very fertile ground for sexual harassment related litigation, because the laws are very strong and there is a precedence of such cases. Studies reveal that American businesses lose $1 billion a year due to sexual harassment, with just the jury award alone averaging about $2,50,000 per incident.

Currently, there is no legislative enactment against sexual harassment and abuse in work places in India. In the absence of an enacted law, the Supreme Court of India laid down certain guidelines and norms for due observance at all work places whether public or private sector and these guidelines are treated as the law declared by the Supreme Court under article 141 of the Constitution of India (“Guidelines”) and enforceable in law until suitable legislation is enacted by Parliament.

FINDINGS:
Demographic details: The study was administered to 100+ IT Professionals in the software industry. Of these, nearly 32 per cent were female respondents and 68 per cent were male. According to Nasscom, the male to female ratio in the Indian IT Industry id 65:35. The sample study had a similar ratio of 67:32 of males to females, and thus the sample is representative of the population. 70 per cent of the respondents were unmarried and 30 per cent were married.

Instances of ‘intra-office’ romances: 36 per cent of the respondents have dated someone within the organisation, and 66 per cent of them did not inform anyone about it. 29 per cent of them either reported it to their superiors of their team mates or others. This is interesting to note because 56 per cent of the respondents feel that instances of romances in their offices is less than 10 per cent. This perception could be because most of these romances go unreported.

Attitudes towards ‘intra-office’ romance: Interestingly, only 11.32 per cent of respondents believed that intra-office romance is a good thing. Majority of the respondents (42 per cent) were indifferent, and 14.15 per cent were not sure about their feelings. It is interesting to note that a large percentage of respondents — 32 per cent felt uncomfortable about the instances or felt that it could cause discomfort among other team members. This is one section that cannot be ignored.

Awareness of company policy towards ‘intra-office’ romances: Only 20.56 per cent of the respondents were aware of any company policy related to intra-office romances. 43.93 per cent of the respondents were sure that there is no such policy and 35.51 per cent of the respondents reported that they were unaware. Employees need to be made aware of policies related to ‘intra-office’ romances.

Sexual harassment Related issues: 71 per cent of the respondents being aware of a complaint cell for harassment related issues in their company. 29 per cent reported either that there is no such cell or that they are unaware. This is a serious issue since it is a direct violation of the stipulations of the law. There has to be a complaint cell and all employees must be aware of this.

A whopping 75 per cent reported not having received any sensitivity training regarding interactions with the opposite sex. The number of respondents who received sensitivity training when working at the client’s site outside India is slightly higher at 35 per cent.