A British TV company now requires all staff to declare all their sexual and romantic relationships, all "close" relationships, and all friendships, and all roommate relationships. This intolerable system of repression is the natural endpoint of the ever-increasing repression of office romances. It was always heading for this.

There are valid reasons for rules against office romances, but given the harm that those rules do even when not carried to these absurd extremes, the reasons are not strong enough to justify them.

Human beings need sexual relationships; human beings need love; human beings need friendship. If your main social contact is through work, where are you supposed to look for these things? Degrading yourself by running nonfree software such a dating app or Grindr? Going to a club (if you can look sharp enough to be allowed in) and getting drunk?

We had better adapt our rules to those human needs.