People choose whom they date and befriend—no-one is forcing EAs to date each other, live together, or be friends.
I don’t think the issue is once of explicit ‘force’. It is one of implicit expectation, social pressure from ‘soft norms’.
Ordinary workplaces do team-building exercises because they recognise that there are productivity and morale benefits when colleagues trust each other, respect each other, and have fun together. If you work with friends—or befriend your coworkers, e.g. by regularly hanging out with them outside of work, or sharing a group house together—you get these benefits for free.
IMO there is a lot of difference between team building exercises vs encouraging (including ‘soft norm’ pressure) living with and dating your co-workers.
There is a lot more exposure to risks, especially to vulnerable groups from the latter.
Ordinary workplaces err on the side of workplace romance policies that limit risks to their employees and the reputation of the workplace. I don’t think we can reasonable argue that EA organizations/workplaces/professional spaces are immune from these risks.
‘Ordinary workplaces’ have learnt how some behaviors increase discrimination and harm towards vulnerable groups the hard way (after decades of harmful behavior towards vulnerable groups). For example, going to a strip club is no longer an acceptable form of team building exercise. I believe there is a lot to be learnt from conventional workplaces that have spent a very long time harming these groups and limiting their access to workplaces. The last thing we would want to do is repeat these mistakes because of biased beliefs that we are too good or too smart to make them.
I guess I’m sceptical that there is really “soft norm” pressure to date one’s co-workers (except inasmuch as there is less of a norm not to date one’s co-workers, but that’s different). Like, do people really think (implicitly or explicitly) “I’ll do better at work if I date this person, so I’m going to date them (whether or not I like them)”? This seems very weird to me. I’d find it really hard to date someone for a long time if I wasn’t actually into them.
I don’t think the issue is once of explicit ‘force’. It is one of implicit expectation, social pressure from ‘soft norms’.
IMO there is a lot of difference between team building exercises vs encouraging (including ‘soft norm’ pressure) living with and dating your co-workers.
There is a lot more exposure to risks, especially to vulnerable groups from the latter.
Ordinary workplaces err on the side of workplace romance policies that limit risks to their employees and the reputation of the workplace. I don’t think we can reasonable argue that EA organizations/workplaces/professional spaces are immune from these risks.
‘Ordinary workplaces’ have learnt how some behaviors increase discrimination and harm towards vulnerable groups the hard way (after decades of harmful behavior towards vulnerable groups). For example, going to a strip club is no longer an acceptable form of team building exercise. I believe there is a lot to be learnt from conventional workplaces that have spent a very long time harming these groups and limiting their access to workplaces. The last thing we would want to do is repeat these mistakes because of biased beliefs that we are too good or too smart to make them.
I guess I’m sceptical that there is really “soft norm” pressure to date one’s co-workers (except inasmuch as there is less of a norm not to date one’s co-workers, but that’s different). Like, do people really think (implicitly or explicitly) “I’ll do better at work if I date this person, so I’m going to date them (whether or not I like them)”? This seems very weird to me. I’d find it really hard to date someone for a long time if I wasn’t actually into them.