If you've ever worked in an office where two people were dating and they had a spat, you may have noticed that things at the office didn't go so swell either.

In some situations, if the romance goes totally sour, one of the employees may claim sexual harassment. On the other hand, if the relationship flowers, other workers may feel slighted, even claim discrimination.

These are some of the very reasons companies ask workers to sign so-called "love contracts." These contracts outline the ground rules for entering consensual relationships, including notifying the human resource director of the relationship and agreeing that if you break up, you won't allow it to negatively affect your job performance.

Such contracts protect the employer from a sexual harassment suit. They may "incidentally provide protection for the manager or supervisor who enters into a relationship with a lower-level employee," says Calvin House, attorney with Gutierrez, Preciado & House in Pasadena, Calif., because the "lower-level employee would agree at the outset that the relationship was consensual."

This might forestall a later claim the manager somehow coerced the employee into the relationship, he says.

But some people think a company is going too far to ask them to sign a "love contract." A recent episode of ABC's "Boston Legal" depicted such a situation when a character having a relationship with another lawyer at his firm was asked to sign a "love contract." He refused, saying his personal life is private. The firm fired him for not signing.

Attorney House says he's never encountered a situation where that happened with one of his clients. "For the employer to be able to insist in a situation where an employee did resist, it would have to adopt a policy that banned all office romances unless the participants entered into a 'love contract,' " he says.

And in the real world, "it seems extremely unlikely that an employer would risk the bad morale that would probably result from that kind of intrusion into its employees' private lives," House says.

When do they get signed? "Love contracts" come into the picture when you enter a relationship with someone at work and it comes to the attention of human resources, House says.

The contracts have been around for about 10 years. Some attorneys see them increasing in popularity. Most say it's an issue that comes up again and again. After all, a lot of people do meet and become involved at work, which, depending on their actions, can affect their jobs. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is finding that out as he is being charged with favoritism for helping his companion get a new job with a hefty raise.

But not all consequences of workplace romance are negative, writes Frederick S. Lane III in his book "The Naked Employee: How Technology is Compromising Workplace Privacy." He cites evidence that co-workers who date spend more time at work, have higher motivation, fewer sick days and less turnover. But the biggest consequence for the worker is that a workplace romance gives an employer an excuse to probe the intimate details of your personal life.

So depending on your company's romance policy, if you do date someone at your office, it behooves you to keep it all business at work. Because as Lane puts it, the less of an impact the relationship has on your work and conduct, the less of an excuse your company has to start asking personal questions.

Contact Andrea Kay at andrea@andreakay.com.