职场恋情为什么会逐渐败落？

来源Why Office Romance Is on the Wane
译者冬季恋歌

Why Office Romance Is on the Wane

With legal threats on the rise, especially from "third parties," office affairs could be the latest recession casualty

随着法律风险上升，尤其是来自“第三方”的诉讼，办公室恋情最终是经济衰退最新的受害者。

By Spencer Morgan

作者：斯宾塞·摩根

linkedin connections In 2002, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) dispatched an investigator to Guatemala City on a top secret assignment: to spy on factory inspection manager James W. Lynn as he toured a facility with a female colleague. During four days of surveillance, the investigator eventually uncovered the evidence he was after in the form of "moans and sighs" emanating from their Holiday Inn bedroom. In accordance with Wal-Mart's rigid "no-fraternization" policy, Lynn was fired.

2002年，沃尔玛超市派了一名密探去危地马拉城执行一项绝密任务：以随同一名女同事参观为名，暗中监视工厂检查经理詹姆士W•林恩。最终，在四天的监视中， 密探苦苦追寻的证据从他们的假日旅馆的卧房以“呻吟和喘息”展现。按照沃尔玛的严格的“不深交”政策，林恩被解雇了。

The time-honored institution known as the office romance has survived threats like corporate no-fraternization policies, philandering chief executives, and David Letterman. (Or, in the recent case of former Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd, ambiguous contractors.) Now there's a new legal menace: scorned workers who claim that an office affair fostered an invidious work environment, even if they weren't actually involved in the romance themselves. So-called third party or hostile work environment sexual harassment claims are difficult to prove but easy to allege, particularly by employees fearing for their jobs in a sluggish economy.

这个因办公室恋情而久享盛名的机构在不深交政策、玩弄女性的首席执行官、《大卫•莱特曼秀》之下得以幸免。(或者，近期前任惠普公司首席执行官马克•赫德中含混不清的合约商。)现在又出现一个新的法律威胁：蔑视声称办公室恋情产生充满妒忌的工作环境的员工，即使他们自己没有涉足恋情。对于所谓的第三方或带敌意的工作环境下的性骚扰索赔说起来容易证实起来难，特别是在当前经济不景气的情况下雇员们担心失业。

As job insecurity has mounted and third party claims have risen, the office fling may become the recession's latest victim. "It seems likely that there's a certain opportunistic element to what's happening out there," says Sondra Solovay, a director of Workplace Answers, a San Francisco-based compliance services company. "Employees who fear for their jobs are making sexual favoritism complaints as a means of ensuring their own job security."

随着工作的不安全感的增加以及第三方索赔案件上涨，办公室风流将成为经济衰退的最新的受害者。“看来其中可能有些投机取巧的因素，” 职场问答主管桑德拉•索洛韦说，职场问答是一家总部设在旧金山的行为准则服务公司，“为工作担忧的员工把抱怨性徇私作为保障自己职业安全感的一种途径。”

The most pressing threat to the office romance, Solovay says, is the rise of the retaliation lawsuit. Such suits are waged by workers who claim they were fired to prevent them from filing a discrimination claim against their employer. Currently, retaliation suits are contributing to a wave of litigation that has employers in a panic. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's records show claims involving retaliation grew by 23 percent in 2008—roughly twice the rate of all other claims. They totaled 32,690 and accounted for approximately one-third of claims filed with the agency. Retaliation claims rose again last year, accounting for 36 percent of the total. The EEOC, whose mandate is to enforce federal antidiscrimination laws, has added 170 investigators across the country, in part to address the issue.

索洛韦说，对办公室恋情最迫切的威胁是报复性诉讼的兴起。诉讼主要由宣称为防止他们琢磨着向雇主提出不公平待遇索赔而被解雇的工人提出。目前，这种报复性诉讼掀起了新一波的起诉浪潮，这使得雇主们惶惶不安。平等就业机会委员会（Equal Employment Opportunity Commission，EEOC）的记录表明2008年以牙还牙式诉讼中的索赔增长了23%——约为其他所有的索赔的增长比例的两倍，共计32，690件，约占总额的三分之一。去年该类投诉案件再次增长，占总额的36%。职责为执行联邦反歧视法的EEOC在全国范围内又增加了170名人员，一定程度上是为了解决这一问题。

A once-amorous workforce already seems to be feeling the effects. This February, 75 percent of U.S. workers surveyed by job search website Monster.com (MWW) believed a workplace relationship could bring a conflict. Sixty-two percent said they felt office romances were a distraction from job performance. Careerbuilder.com's annual Valentine's Day romance poll has shown an alarming decline in reported office trysts. In 2006, 50 percent of respondents claimed to have partaken in a workplace relationship during their career. Earlier this year, the number dropped to 37 percent.

曾经多情的员工貌似已经感受到了这一效果。今年二月， 美国75%的接受求职网站Monster.com （MWW）调查的员工认为职场恋情会引起冲突。62%的人称他们认为办公室恋情降低工作绩效。Careerbuilder.com网站一年一度的情人节浪漫民意测验显示公开的办公室幽会显著下降。在2006年，50%的受访者宣称曾在职业生涯期间发展过职场恋情。今年年初，这一数字下降到了37%。

This is disturbing news not only for employees but also for their bosses. Some management experts believe that a workplace fling can "greatly increase something called 'engagement,' " says Stephanie Losee, co-author of Office Mate, a guide to finding love in the workplace. "That's when you're excited to come in and work and you care about your company." For these reasons, National Public Radio, Princeton Review (REVU), Pixar (DIS), and Southwest Airlines (LUV) encourage in-house matchmaking. Frederick S. Lane III, author of The Naked Employee, argues that co-worker couples spend more time at work, take fewer sick days, and are less likely to quit.

这一消息不仅令员工坐立不安，而且令他们的老板们心神不定。一些管理专家认为办公室恋情能“大大提高所谓的‘义务感’，” 职场寻爱指南《办公室伴侣》的合著者Stephanie Losee说:“届时，你会兴冲冲的来上班，关心你的公司。”由于这些原因，国家公共电台，《普林斯顿评论》（REVU），皮克斯（DIS），西南航空公司（LUV）鼓励内部配对。《赤裸的职员》一书作者Frederick S. Lane III认为同事夫妇投入到工作的时间更多， 病假更少，辞职的可能性更小。

More than ever, all it takes is one overly amorous apple to ruin the fun for everyone. Claims of such behavior led to the landmark office romance legal ruling—Miller vs. Dept. of Corrections, in 2005—involving a story of a classic prison love triangle. Plaintiffs Edna Miller and Frances Mackey, both corrections officers, claimed they were discrimination victims of Chief Deputy Warden Lewis Kuykendall, who allegedly was sleeping with three of their colleagues. Miller and Mackey alleged that Kuykendall habitually rewarded the three women with promotions, bonuses, and other special treatment. On one occasion, they said, a paramour announced that if she didn't get promoted, she would take the warden down with her knowledge of "every scar on his body."

而且，毁掉所有人乐趣仅仅需要一个滥情的家伙。在2005年，对此类行为的索赔制定了具有里程碑意义的职场恋情法规——米勒监狱法案。其中涉及到一个经典的狱警三角恋。原告埃德娜•米勒和弗朗西斯•麦基二人均是狱警，声称她们是被副监狱长Lewis Kuykendall歧视的受害者。据称，他与三名女同事有染。米勒和麦基声称，Kuykendall习惯性地以升职、奖金以及其它特殊待遇嘉奖这三名女性。有一次，她们说，其中一个情妇宣称，如果她没有得到升职，就凭自己知道该监狱长“身上的每一处疤痕”把他拉下位。

Worse, Miller and Mackey described a prison rife with awkward tension, lovers' quarrels, and public displays of affection. When Miller told Kuykendall about an additional affair one of his girlfriends was having with another female employee, she said, the message was passed on to the paramour, who summarily beat Miller into submission and locked her in a closet.

更糟的是，米勒和麦基描述的监狱充满紧张不安、情侣间争吵以及公开示爱。米勒告诉Kuykendall他的女朋友与另一名女性雇员有私情，她说， 这名情妇得知此事后，把米勒打到求饶，还把她锁在壁橱里。

In its ruling, the California Supreme Court declared that neither Miller nor Mackey were victims of traditional sexual harassment. However, it concluded, their claims implied they suffered the collateral damage of an office romance, even though they weren't intimately involved. The case subsequently redefined sexual discrimination liability—and the intervening years have only seen the law evolve more.

在裁定期间，加州最高法院宣告米勒和麦基均不是传统性骚扰受害者。然而，归根究底，她们的诉讼暗示她们也遭受了职场恋情带来的附加伤害，尽管他们的关系并不密切。随后，该案件重新定义了歧视的责任，前几年见证了该法规的进化过程。

Third party discrimination claims have helped further the rise in retaliation and develop the legal theory of "Sex Plus." Regarding the latter, courts have ruled that when a romance enters the office, an employee can prove discrimination based on gender "plus" another particular characteristic. If a manager's failed office romance forces him or her to focus more heavily on the work, his increasing demands on, for example, a pregnant underling could give her the grounds for a lawsuit. Under Sex Plus, the pregnant woman could allege that the office romance had provided an underlying basis for a separate act of discrimination. "When the courts find in favor of the client, then interpretation of the law gets expanded," says Dr. John A. Pearce II, an endowed chairman at Villanova School of Business. "We're seeing the emergence of more and more third party cases. Attorneys go to court and say, 'Following the logic of these laws, we think that you ought to find in favor of our client in this particular new twist.' And that's exactly what's happened."

第三方歧视索赔进一步促进报复性诉讼的增长以及“性好处”的法律理论。之于后者，法院已裁定，在办公室发展恋情时，雇员可以利用另外一个独特的特征证明其是基于性别“以及”另一特征的歧视。如果经理因为自己办公室恋情的失败而强迫他或她能做更多的工作，要求也越来越多。 例如，怀孕的下属就可以以此为由提起诉讼。在性好处的情况下，孕妇则可声称办公室恋情为单独的性别歧视行为提供了潜在基础。 “当法庭的发现更支持诉讼委托人时，那么对该法律的解释将会得到扩展，”大学维拉诺瓦商学院主席John A. Pearce II博士说:“我们发现出现越来越多的第三方的案例。律师上法庭会说:‘根据这些法律的逻辑，我们认为你们应该在这个特殊的新困境中支持我们的委托人’，当时就是这样。”

According to the EEOC, money paid out by companies in sexual harassment lawsuits has averaged only $47.8 million over the last 12 years. That low figure, many believe, is indicative of employers' preference to settle out of court rather than face an ugly lawsuit. However, thanks to the rise of third party discrimination claims, the EEOC recovered $376 million on behalf of discrimination victims in 2009.

据EEOC称， 仅在过去12年，由公司支付性骚扰诉讼案件中就达到每年47，800，000美元。许多人认为，该数据如此之低揭露了雇主喜欢庭外解决，而不是通过丢面子的官司。然而，由于第三方歧视索赔的不断增多，EEOC于2009年代表被歧视的受害者收回3.76亿美元。

Fearing such settlements amid a recession, a growing number of companies are fighting back. One popular method is forcing employees to sit through Web-based compliance training sessions that underscore the perils of a little affection in the copy room. By consolidating sensitivity seminars and policy education into a mandatory online tutorial, companies can put the onus of awareness on the employee. "The dollar amounts that companies are spending on training in general are significantly down from the 2007 and 2008 period," says Gary Fusco, a senior director at Workplace Answers. "But [one of] the two areas where companies actually grew in terms of real dollars targeted was compliance."

经济衰退期间，由于担心EEOC的解决方法，越来越多的公司正发起反击。普遍的一种方法是迫使雇员坐下，利用网络进行行为准则培训，甚至强调复印室里的丝毫私情的危险。通过将理性研讨会和政策教育巩固成强制性的在线辅导，公司将强化雇员的责任意识。“从2007年和2008年期间，公司一般用在培训上的资金显著下降，”，职场问答的高级主管盖理•福斯柯：“但是实际上公司投入资金增长的一种方式是服从。”（此句求眉批）

Another strategy is forcing employees to sign "love contracts," the office version of a prenup, stating their mutual affection will not interfere with the workplace. If such documentation effectively takes the fun out of an office romance, well, that's the point.

另一个策略是迫使雇员签署“爱情合约”，婚前协议办公室版，声明双方的情感不会妨碍工作。如果这样的文件能有效的办公室恋情中的乐趣抹杀，这才是问题的关键。

Most companies, however, haven't yet decided what to do. According to a survey of more than 600 companies by the Society for Human Resource Management, 13 percent reported having a written policy addressing intra-office affairs; 14 percent claimed they had an unwritten one. "Companies are still on the fence," says Fusco. "They want to see what happens next before making their move."

然而，大多数公司还没有决定要怎么做。根据一项由人力资源管理机构对600多家公司开展的调查，13%的公司有书面政策解决办公室恋情，14%的公司声称他们有不成文的规定。“公司依然报观望态度，”，Fusco说:“他们想看看在采取措施之前接下来会发生什么。”

One such company is discount retailer Costco (COST). A recent issue of its monthly magazine, The Costco Connection, featured a photo of two co-workers locking lips over a queue divider under the banner headline, "Should dating co-workers sign a 'love contract'?" The Connection offered a panel of experts to inform the debate. "At issue here is whether an organization should invite a host of organizational vulnerabilities so as not to impede an office romance," noted Francie Dalton, one of the featured "experts from the field" and founder of Maryland-based management consultancy Dalton Alliances. "That it may happen anyway is not sufficient to negate the need for clear policy....This isn't being hard-hearted—it's acting to avoid ill-advised risk."

其中一个这样的公司便是美国科思科连锁企业（COST）。最近一期月刊《科思科通信》上以两名同事的嘴唇被一排锁扣住，通栏大标题为“与同事约会要签‘爱情合约’”？该杂志邀请一组专家参与争论。“争论中，组织是否应该征求一大堆组织上的漏洞，以免妨碍办公室恋情发展，”，“该领域重要专家”兼马里兰的管理咨询公司道尔顿联盟的创始人佛朗斯•道尔顿说：“这也是迟早的事，并不足以否定对明确政策的需要....这么做并不是铁石心肠，这只是为了避免不明智的风险。”