Office romance has always been a given in China. To an extent it
was even encouraged. When man and wife both work for the same
employer, the reasoning goes, it makes family life and office work
so much easier to co-ordinate and more efficient.
As a matter of fact, when a college graduate first takes a job,
he or she immediately scouts the office for candidates available
for dating. If the newcomer does not do it, the colleagues will do
it for him or her.
But things are changing. Multinational corporations and private
companies increasingly discourage office affairs. When office
politics are mixed with private life, it will be detrimental to
both, many employers claim.
A human resources officer at UFSoft, a Beijing-based software
firm, tells of an incident when two employees started dating each
other. They spent too much time together and it interfered with
their job performance, even negatively affecting their co-workers,
he says. So, the company has made it a policy that no immediate
relative of a current employee should be hired. If employees date
each other, one party has to go within one month of the marriage or
their relationship being exposed.
We don't want to form a culture of nepotism, Han the HR officer
explains. It would throw a wrench in the principle of fairness and
equality. Imagine a superior and a subordinate are a couple,
managing the team would be real difficult and team-mates would be
justified to suspect preferential treatment.
The funny thing is, Wang Wenjing, the company's CEO, fell in
love with and eventually married a department manager of his own
firm. Mrs. Wang had to quit her job so as not to break the
corporate rule. Fortunately these cases are few and far between,
Han says.
Most firms do not put the ban in the company guidebook. Instead,
they advise employees not to date or they would be "encouraged" to
leave the job. Kingsoft, another software maker, turns a blind eye
when an office romance is in the underground stage. Once it becomes
public, one party would be "advised" to quit, according to Gao
Ningning, assistant to the president.
But some legal experts do not see it that way. Inside dating and
marriage does not violate the labour law or the marriage law,
argues Zhan Zhongle, associate professor at Peking University Law
School. Instead, banning it has no legal base. That's why most
employers do not dare to put it down as company policy and some
even deny the existence of verbal warnings.
Surprisingly, white-collar workers are not grumbling. It's not
easy to get into one of these companies in the first place. Besides
we have been forewarned, so there's nothing unfair about it, many
acknowledge. So the laws of economics are in play here.
But State-owned enterprises (SOEs) tend to take a different
approach. Chang'an Group sponsors special tours for its single
employees, creating opportunities for them to get to know one
another outside the office environment. It even awards each new
couple 500 yuan (US$60.48) for tying the knot. "The Chinese saying
'an ju le ye" makes a lot of sense as one has to 'make a home"
first and then 'take pleasure in work"" an executive with the
company rationalizes.
Some companies adopt flexible policies on corporate "incestuous"
relationship. They prohibit it when they see a conflict of interest
or potential risk for abuse. For example, no couples are allowed to
work in the accounting department.
Others take a totally laissez faire attitude. "Hey, this is not
a school and we're not school administrators. What employees do
with their private lives is their own business," exclaims a
Chongqing Beer Group personnel manager, without realizing that
college rendezvous have always been kept underground and are only
now coming out of the dark.
"You can fire an employee for poor performance "if it's induced
by office romance, but you cannot mete out penalty simply because
of the romance," Professor Zhan remarks.
(China Daily January 10, 2004)