Should Companies Allow Employees to Stay After Marrying a Coworker? Let's Discuss!

Dear Sirs, We have a policy of not encouraging employees to marry each other and allow them to continue working. If anybody falls in love with an employee, either male or female, they have to choose to quit the job after marriage. I understand that WIPRO and other leading MNCs have a policy just opposite to ours, i.e., encouraging employees to continue after marriage and even encouraging love marriages among employees. I would like to have a better understanding of this topic.

Awaiting a healthy discussion.

Employee Marriage and Workplace Policies

What is wrong with employees' marriage? What is the reason to involve the office? In fact, many large and well-known organizations do not interfere in this type of matter. Professional life and personal life are two different things; companies are not authorized to interfere in employees' personal lives. Companies have employees for 9 hours, after which no matter what they do, it should not affect the company (for example, criminal acts, etc.). Otherwise, what is wrong with marriage? Does it impact an employee's performance? Will the employee perform less if he or she marries a colleague?

Hiring Policy on Family Members

Most companies have a policy of NOT hiring the following candidates:

1. Current employees' family members.
2. Husband and wife (even if they marry after joining the company).
3. Relatives of current employees, etc.
4. Employees who are near to the factory.

The reasons behind this policy are that if multiple family members are hired, it reduces opportunities for other individuals to work in the same company. Equal chances should be given to all. Moreover, hiring family members or relatives could lead to potential corruption of company information, especially if they work in the same department.

Family issues can easily spill over into the workplace, affecting performance negatively. There are several other reasons supporting this policy. I would appreciate senior feedback on this matter.

Thank you.

Dear Yasmin,

I can understand your views, but if we start encouraging, won't it affect the total discipline of the workforce? I am talking about a situation where the female workforce is in the 18-22 age group in a garment manufacturing setup. However, as my friend suggested, we need to debate more on this...

If employees work in good, respectable positions and are professional, then there should be no issue. I have observed instances in reputable companies where husbands and wives work together on the same premises, in the same department, and even at the same table, yet they maintain a formal demeanor towards each other during work hours. However, it is evident that they share a loving relationship as they have lunch together in the canteen.

Marriage Policies in the Workplace

As a rule, I don't think that companies should discourage colleagues from getting married. It is a matter of personal choice. As long as work and ethics are not compromised, companies should try to support this.

We also have married couples working in our company. The only rule is that they cannot be in the same team, as there could be favoritism if one of them is the supervisor or department head. In case two employees in the same department decide to get married, we transfer one of them to another department.

Regards

I agree with Chond's statement. It is nice to transfer to another department or project in order to avoid problems. I won't accept these kinds of policies. As Jesus said, many companies have policies stating they won't hire employees' family members and relatives. I welcome this kind of policy for better performance and improvement.

Mr. Ramesh, don't restrict couples and lovers in your company. Allow them to marry and don't encourage these kinds of policies.

In my previous company, initially, we had a policy where an employee's spouse could not be hired. If any employee fell in love with another employee, then one of them needed to quit within a maximum of three months from the date of marriage. Later, we found it hard as we lost some valuable employees because of this policy. So, the management revised the policy to state that an employee and his/her spouse cannot work in the same department or under the same reporting authority. Now, everything is going fine.

Normally, companies hesitate to hire the spouse of an employee due to the possibility of ego clashes arising from factors like salary, designation, etc., which can create problems for management.

However, there are also some advantages to having couples as employees in the company. For instance, it can help with attrition as an employee may think twice before resigning if his/her spouse also works in the same company. It can also ease transfers, making it simpler to relocate an employee to another location along with his/her spouse for on-site assignments, and more.

Regards,

Kartheka R

Thank you for everybody's views. I understand that the majority is not in favor of asking an employee to submit a paper when he/she falls in love with a colleague. On the other hand, it has more positive aspects such as better bonding with the organization and reduced attrition.

Meanwhile, a few management issues like combined late coming and combined leave for family functions also need to be considered. Implementing a policy that prohibits having both individuals in the same reporting relationship or department could help reduce these problems, I believe.

Many thanks.

Best regards