Reconsidering ‘love contracts’

As I type this out, social media is going bonkers over the kiss-cam video and memes of a tech company CEO and its Chief People Officer, locked in an embrace at a Coldplay concert together. News outlets are reporting his resignation because of their apparent date. What should Texas employers learn from this?

Could a love contract work at your company?

It’s May 2018. There’s a pronounced trend of coworkers dating. In response, employers are experimenting with love contracts whereby these coworkers continue in a dating relationship but with agreed upon terms imposed by their employer.

D Magazine runs an article titled, “Workplace Romance: The Love Contract,” quoting a local labor and employment lawyer: “Love contracts? Don’t do them. Don’t get involved in the private lives of your employees. A love contract is not a management panacea and is no substitute for management judgment.” The lawyer? That’s right, me. But that was then, and this is now.

What changed?

Well, I got wiser. And the world changed. Numbers don’t lie. A 2023 study by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) reveals: