BPOs have opened out unimaginable avenues of career advancement and financial security to young Indian women. The industry recognizes for the most part, hardworking employees without too much of the gender discrimination rampant in other sectors. As a result of which more and more women are climbing up the ladder to take on senior positions.

Corporate employees work long hours and have close interactions with members of the opposite sex. Says Dr. Vijay Nagaswami, Marital Therapist, "There is ample scope for romance since pheromones are bound to get involved."

Romance in the office may be an inevitable part of spending more time at the office rather than at home, but the admission of 34 percent of corporate employees that they see no harm in romancing married colleagues in a study by Team Lease, a staffing company, confirms the shift in value systems in Indian society today.

"When marital relationships become weak due to some reason, the need to look for some one else to bond with arises and opportunities are available today," reflects Brinda Jayaraman, Psychotherapist. "Another reason could be that couples hardly have time to be together these days because jobs demand all their time. There is a danger of marital relationships not getting enough time for the development of strong bonding between spouses."

"Employees are spending more time with single co-workers than with her/his spouse or partner and therefore the risk of emotional dependence on the co-worker tends to be greater," opines Dr. Nagaswami. "But it is wrong to blame it on work atmosphere alone, extra marital affairs have taken place at all times. It is always advisable for single people to keep a distance from their married colleagues since there are greater chances of emotional dependencies resulting from the high pressure work environment today."

The Team lease study also brought out the report that women are most often equal partners in initiating affairs. Almost 59 percent of the respondents agreed on this aspect of office romance sweeping Indian office today.

Sabita S (name changed) who works in a BPO opines, "This is an age of experimentation and people try to spice up their stressful lives with exciting friendships which may sometimes get out of hand and end up as affairs."

Jayaraman points out that it is matter of personal choice but a situation has come about where companies need to think seriously about providing training to employees not only in team building and performance enhancement but also in handling relationships to ensure that personal lives do not get disrupted. After all disruption in personal life will affect professional capacities too ultimately hitting productivity of the company, and this could get attention if nothing else does

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