A US tech company says its chief executive has quit after he was apparently caught on a big screen at a Coldplay concert embracing a female co-worker, in a clip that went viral.
The clip showed a man and a woman hugging on a jumbo screen at the arena in Foxborough, Massachusetts, before they abruptly ducked and hid from the camera.
The pair were identified in US media as Mr Byron, a married chief executive of Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the firm’s chief people officer.
This is completely fucking moronic. Employees are not a company property. Good there is the article 8 (right to private life) of Humans Rights Act in the UK, stopping madness like this.
I am from the UK and this wouldn’t fly here either.
You can’t be sleeping with your employees dude that’s a clear power imbalance dynamic and you would be fired here too for having a relationship with a subordinate.
It’s not like companies give a shit who you sleeping with but they have rules in place to prevent abuses of power and also to protect their own image.
Seems pretty naive that you can only see this from a very limited angle.
Educate yourself.
https://www.employmentlawreview.co.uk/personal-relationships-at-work-what-does-uk-law-say/
You can be forced to disclose relationships and sacked if you fail to do so. You cannot be sacked for having a relationship.
I don’t believe I said it was the law. I’m saying most companies have policies against it.
Read again. You cannot be sacked for having a relationship and companies are not allowed to forbid that. Admit you were wrong and move on.
Hey if you can show me some legal precedence then perhaps I’ll admit to being wrong but you only provided a non official article discussing this not some legal precedence of these rules in employment contracts being contested and overturned in a court of law.
Removed by mod
Why are you being so rude?
It happens the more off topic or wrong a person gets.
crickets
No need to engage with someone who talks like that.
Your article clearly says they can have policies about it. The penalty for not following policies is often termination. So the article doesn’t say what you are claiming it does.
Read. Again. Slowly. 🤦
I did, several times. And pointed out the flaws in your argument. Your response says you have no logic with which to counter.
Now try to understand what you are reading. Start with
Note in your first paragraph of the quote, it only says likely. So even they admit that there is wiggle room. Nothing in the article specifically protected the right to have a relationship with a subordinate, and in fact says if disclosed they can move people so they are no long subordinate as a result of thier relationship. Which is clearly not saying that company policy can’t involve consequences for having a relationship with a subordinate.
The CEO wasn’t transparent about it to the board, so he can be fired for that.
He was married, so he would be breaking a law by having sex with anyone else in many jurisdictions, and the bad image/press that gives the company would be enough to fire him even if it wasn’t illegal where he is.
The liability alone that she “could” claim she felt pressured into the relationship because he was the boss would likely give them cause to fire him based on his contract.
I am not aware of any instances where it is against the law to cheat on your wife.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adultery_laws “There are fifteen[6] countries in which stoning is authorized as lawful punishment” (for adultery)
Plenty more it is just illegal.
16 us states.
Punishment and enforcement vary. But it is certainly against the law in a lot of places. In others it will put you “at fault” in divorce proceedings. So maybe not illegal, but has legal consequences.
Thanks, I’ve learned something today.
Are you seriously suggesting is perfectly normal in the UK for the CEO to have an affair with the head of HR that he hired, and no one would complain because of human rights act?
The Europeans had, and still have in some cases, dynastic royalty and state religions and stuff. They’re surprisingly backward in a lot of ways. The personal freedom to use your power imbalance at work for sexual gratification seems like the sort of thing they’d never move forward away from.
Look, I come from the middle east where my entire life way ruled over by monarchs installed by England and currently controlled by America… They are literally untouchable, more so than ornamental monarchs like Europe. And if a big shot company owner is caught having an affair, they could literally both be killed by their respective families… I don’t think European CEOs can get away with it because they have royalty.
Royalty (even ornamental) in the 21st century is just an example of having backwards and ridiculously outmoded cultural constructs. I admit that I could have phrased that better.
European résumés include photographs and marital status, which would be an outrageous reach into one’s personal life in the states. It’s not surprising that they’re ok with the idea that bosses should be able to have relationships with their employees and still keep their jobs. I guess that makes the resumes make more sense.
It is perfectly normal to not have your personal life controlled by a company, yes.
Blows USians mind, eh?
You’re not understanding the full context of this situation. And then acting like everyone else here are the dumb ones.
You should just stop embarrassing yourself.
Either doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to understand. I’m not sure
Are you a teenager? 🙄
I’m not a USian, I just have critical thinking skills.
It’s called conflict of interest, and disclosure is often required to avoid accusations of favoritism.
Disclosure - yes. That can be requested and an employee may be sacked if he fails to disclose such information. Unlike USA however, companies are unable to tell an employee to NOT have a relationship with someone at work. It can make a decision to move employees in relationship to other teams if for example there is a risk involved.
That’s what happened here… He didn’t disclose the relationship because it was an affair.
It isn’t real just because you imagine it… That’s not how it works in the US.
Once again, America shows how “free” they actually are.
And to show that the protection is not theoretical in Europe: Walmart implemented that policy when they tried getting into the German market twenty years ago. They were so insistent that it took a judge to tell them to stop it since it was against the law(It’s sraight up against the first and second article of the German constitution, which protects personal freedom).
They were free to disclose it. It is this way because people have used interoffice relationships to better their positions and create favor, which leads to an imbalanced an unfair workplace. Having a secret romance in the office has the potential for failure at best.
Got a source? Sounds like an interesting story. I can’t read german though…
If you do a “germany walmart before:2023” search, you’ll find a bunch of English articles about the whole ordeal. It was in Forbes, NYT, etc. almsot twenty years ago because of how badly they failed on multiple levels.
Seems like they were trying to ban all relationships between any employes. That wouldn’t fly in the US either.
Thank you, try to explain it to morons who downvoted my comment.
So what happens when a CEO uses his position of power to force somebody into a relationship how does she prove that it was not consensual? These rules are in place to make sure the underlings are protected.
If she gets promoted because she had sex with the boss, you’re telling me that won’t create a hostile work environment for the rest of the people that work there? If they are passed over for a promotion?
If she gets promotion, even if it was a earned promotion, you’re telling me the rest of the office won’t question it if she gets that promotion because of a belief that she got it because she slept with the boss?
There’s a lot that the US gets wrong. This is one item we got right. Yes, they are free to sleep with whoever they want, but they have to disclose it to the company. And there cannot be a boss underling type relationship if they are sleeping with each other.
But this has been explained to you by other people and you just are basically ignoring what others are saying.