To think the CEO caught at Coldplay resigning is a bit of a performance

[CEOhno]

I just... don't get it. I'm not condoning affairs but people do it all the time. I don't understand why they had to resign. Their personal lives deserve to blow up, of course, but it's a bit puritanical and false to pretend that, as a society, we care this much.

It doesn't affect their ability to do their jobs, if the cameras hadn't caught them there wouldn't have been nearly as much fuss. I hate the social media panic and showmanship.

Most work places have strict policies in place about relationships at work and for good reason - power imbalances, unfairness of opportunity, not getting work done during work as mind elsewhere, lack of transparency, leaves company open to legal action and/or criticism. Regulated businesses in particular have onerous duties where this kind of thing could cause people to act without best interests of company in mind. Given the obvious seniority of both they absolutely should have known this was unacceptable and likely consequences. It’s right he should resign. I am surprised how many people are ignoring how unprofessional their actions were and don’t see an issue with it.

He was CEO, the head of the company and he has been proved publicly and irrefutably to be dishonest.

Why would you choose to deal with a dishonest man ?

I suppose it also depends on what else the company has now found out. The woman was hired less than a year ago - does the affair predate the hiring? If so, did it start when he met her as part of the hiring process, or before that?

I believe the company has denied that there were any other employees at the Coldplay concert. And have stated categorically that the woman next to her is not the woman the internet says it is.

ETA - I’m not saying that if the affair only started last week, it’s totally fine. I just mean that if they’ve found out he hired his mistress then that makes it more of a problem.

Morality clauses and disrepute...

thats why.

Many companies will have a policy which warns against behaviour which might bring the ‘company into disrepute’. This would govern behaviour inside and outside of work. My company certainly does. If they’d had an affair and it was a private issue, chances are the company would have given a warning and possibly moved them sideways into roles where there was less direct contact. However their actions have caused the company to become a global laughing stock, headline news and memes on every social media platform. That’s definitely going to fall into ‘bringing the company into disrepute’.

He’s the butt of jokes across the world, who would want a CEO like that? Most CEOs know how to keep their sordid double lives a secret.

And he revealed deep stupidity. If he had not hidden like a peeping Tom he would have got away with it.

When he was “energizing” her, maybe?

I can't believe how viral it has become, with all the memes etc, and for that reason I feel bad for them (and their spouses of course)
Gregg Wallace and John Torrode must feel very grateful to them!

My ex husband (a very high earner) had an affair with a woman at work. When we split, he was shitting himself that anyone at work would find out about it and lied to his colleagues for years after, saying that we were still together.
Dickhead.
He’d still go out places with her though, as he displayed similar levels of arrogance and smugness over not getting caught.

The company say no other employees were there at the concert. How did the video footage get onto the internet? If I was at the concert I wouldn't be videoing strangers on a big screen.

The media should be focusing on more important matters.
Many parts of the world are in crisis and this is making news. 🙄

There's nearly always something in the small print if a work contract about not being the company into disrepute by your behavior. I think in the states there's sometimes a clause about not being involved with coworkers or having to declare it etc.

If his committing fraud or employye illegal immigrants or underpaying employees or fiddling taxes sure having an affair is no ones else's business, but she was also part of ot it no matter how much people women are excused from using their brain i presume she would also resign as is just as dishonest going by that thinking or is she less dishonest because women are not responsible for their actions?

Agreed but people love something that makes them feel better about their own lives. And if it happens to be a rich guy who’s brought down, all the better!

Every American company I've worked at has had something in the code of conduct about no relationships - the last one barred relationships between people at different levels of the same reporting line. So I couldn't date my director, but I could have dated the finance director or the marketing director. This would mean neither of us could be accused of favouritism or blackmail or other pressure.

As CEO, everyone ultimately is in your reporting line, so if you're going to have an affair, you need to do it outside if the company. In doing it with someone who is head of one of the company departments, it raises questions about how fair was her recruitment and then treatment once she was there, and would she allow him to do things that otherwise wouldn't be okay. Once you're at that level, you should be aware of how things would look if it came out, and you shoukd be aware that these things very often do come out, especially if you're cuddling up in public.

Thanks for everyone's replies. I think I can see the situation about there being rules in place to avoid abuse of power and potential unfair preferential treatment, although that could happen anyway, sleeping together or not. But even then I think this is out of hand.

The negative press for the company is sort of the same thing I don't understand. It feels a bit like people are out with pitchforks and moral outrage when really, if a company delivers the product or service it's promised who actually gives a fuck about who the employees are sleeping with?

I think what sits most uncomfortably with me is the fact that their lives have been ripped apart over this - so much more than an affair 'usually' does. It's on an international, unlimited and unrestrained way - that seems wildly and atrociously unfair. But then, I have a problem with that in general - the internet's ability to destroy people's lives without blinking.

his poor wife

I don’t think you’ve read what people have been explaining.

Of course the memes and media frenzy has been out of control but I have no sympathy for him. I am a company director and I am fully aware of my responsibilities to not only conduct myself in an ethical manner but also not to bring disrepute to my company.

This is why I always watch what I drink on work nights out and am very careful about how I behave. The fact he was shagging the head of HR makes it even more laughable.

Sorry but with power comes responsibility and if you cant conduct yourself appropriately then why the heck should anyone trust you in the company?

My friend was in Australia a while back and a pair having an affair had gone to the coastline and walked across one of those coastal arches to a coastal stack. Whilst they were there the archway path crumbled to the extent they had no way back and had to call emergency services be rescued lol. Caught out - all over the news!

@theevidencesofar thank you. Succinctly put.

I am so surprised @CEOhno you cant see this. It’s a listed company.

She was head of HR!

Of course they both need to resign.

To fuck a member of his own board, someone who reported to him, is a massive ethical violation and reputational risk and speaks very poorly of his judgement. That would be true even if they were both single. And if they were sleeping together when he recruited her, even worse.

If he'd been having an affair with Joanna Bloggs who worked for Screwfix, it's very unlikely it would have affected his job at all. It's not the infidelity. It's the ginormous conflict of interest and power issues.

C'mon nasty, connection is about more than looks!

So in order to reduce publicity about it you started a thread on mumsnet that's one of the places that hasn't filled itself with the type of content you're criticising? Have you reflected on why you did that? I mean it won't actually make an iota of difference apart from add to the algorithm that's driving the creation of the content.