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.

I’ve seen senior people at my old workplace have affairs - this was in the 00s though so maybe that’s different I don’t know?

Wow. Objectification, misogyny and ageism, all in the one short post. How efficient are you?

On top of the ethical violations and conflict of interest, they were so blatant about fucking each other that they were snuggling on a work outing. With the second in command of HR literally standing beside them.

I wonder if Ms Cabot had a sexual harassment policy drafted? Which she was ultimately responsible for the detail and enforcement of. What a joke.

The CEO is ultimately responsible but they have both acted unprofessionally. How can the HR Director be impartial in protecting the staff if she is with the CEO - there’s a conflict of interest. They may have a clause in contracts for no relationships. Plus it’s put negative attention on the company, shown him as untrustworthy. Risk to stocks - which is his job as a CEO to guide a steady ship not capsize it 🤣

Also - I wouldn’t be surprised if he brought her in despite them having an affair.

I don’t care that they had an affair, it’s commonplace unfortunately.
I feel sorry for his family though.
But watching a rich person lose his job because he is thinking with his dick even though he’s supposed to be intelligent, that makes me laugh, it’s such a cliché.

It’s all blown up because they were caught out.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

I think it was their reaction to being caught out that made it worse.
If they’d just styled it out they would have been fine.

I've also worked at companies where senior executives have been dismissed for not declaring relationships with someone in their chain of command (which were not adulterous). Companies take it very seriously, and rightly so.

He's still on the board, just had to resign from the CEO position. She still has her job. He's minted, so is she (and her parents are minted too). They'll survive I'm sure.

Their actions have caused any employment issues they potentially may face. Just as I can be reported to my professional body and struck off, if my behaviour or actions are deemed unprofessional or bring disrepute to the profession.

I’m surprised at the amount of people who think it shouldn’t affect his job? It would affect mine, I’m trying to think of a job I’ve worked that it wouldn’t affect and I can’t to be honest.

I used to work for the NHS.
The shenanigans between staff were commonplace.

Absolutely he had to go. Apart from the massive distraction the issue had caused - which is massively unattractive to investors who just want steady leadership, it speaks to a level of toxicity and impropriety that is no longer appropriate in the corporate world.

He is entirely responsible for making decisions around her compensation, promotion and opportunities, whilst she is in a position to influence those of virtually everyone else in the company - so this sort of behavior severely damages trust and makes it extremely difficult to argue that their relationship didn’t have a negative impact on the trajectory of others in the organisation.

even the perception that it did is enough to make both their positions untenable.

It depends really if as of his role he talks about family values , honesty etc then yes he should resign but also hasn't the video prompted other allegations?

He's not just an employee- he's ultimately responsible for all critical functions of a tech company that has billions invested in it.

The guy at the top publicly torching his reputation for integrity and reliability comes with a serious price tag in lost investor confidence- it's not the same as when people in other kinds of job do it, and they would both have been very aware of that.

It's not Puritanism- it's just economic reality.

Apparently someone did do just that, the woman who filmed it has been in a lot of the media too.

If it’s been proven that the head of a company has lied and broken a life promise based on honesty (ie marriage) then they’ve shown their character can’t be trusted to always do the right thing. If he can cheat on his wife, he can sure as hell cheat on his company.
This is about his capability to do his job. It’s about him showing he can’t be trusted with important issues as he has poor character.
He’s human and everyone makes mistakes but actions have consequences.

Indeed. I find the assumption that their respective spouses are going to immediately file for a divorce pretty odd. We know that often doesn’t happen IRL. People don’t ditch a rich spouse and break up a family willy nilly. I mean, I think they should out of self respect, but it’s probable that they won’t.

For those who don't understand why he had to lose his job: Imagine you work for Astronomer and had concerns about the work culture. Or someone reported to you that Byron had harassed them. Or there was an allegation that Cabot had bullied someone. WTF do you do? You cannot do anything about any issues with Byron, because he's fucking the head of HR. You can't do anything about any issues with Cabot, because she's fucking the CEO. What if she wants to end the relationship? How does she do that when he conducts her performance review and assigns her comp? Do you think the other board members who report to Byron have any belief that they're all assessed objectively? What if she makes post facto allegations of coercion because of his position? What if he wants to end the relationship, and sacks her on trumped-up charges because it's easier than working with your ex every day?

The both of them have zero credibility internally, because their relationship puts them in direct conflict with their obligations to their jobs, and they (were) using their power to essentially force everyone to accept that.

All I'll say is that I'd bet money that many of the idiots sharing the clip to make it viral have had affairs themselves.

It’s not just about the adultery, it’s that they were stupid about it.

Imagine if someone did anything illegal/immoral/questionable, and was stupid enough to do it in a public place, and got caught on a Jumbotron.

I think it’s because there may have been a say-do gap in terms of behaviours expected at the organisation, what they publicly champion, and what the CEO and HR director were actually doing. In a lot of businesses there are rules about having it away with your subordinates so this wasn’t great from that perspective.

Of course you can’t have a head of HR having an affair with a CEO without a conflict of interest. If someone went to her with an issue, she would not be able to manage that impartially. And you can’t have a CEO dallying with a member of staff he manages.

And we don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes. When and why she was hired.

Starting a thread to highlight that people talking about these people has ‘gone too far’ is strange. This is the first thread about it I’ve seen on here.

Did you mean it's not a listed company? All the reports I've read say it's a private company

Sorry but whilst that is an admirable perspective; I really don’t believe this is an accurate thought process in the real world, when a male CEO is caught having an extramarital affair with an employee.

Quite often the men come out okay and the female employee is paid off/managed out. The personal life of the male is seen as irrelevant to his capability at work/integrity. Especially if other men are the decision makers. This kind of thing is usually swept under the rug.

Anyway, he resigned so the decision here was all his. I think the only reason this situation ended in his departure was the extreme level of media attention. It couldn’t be swept under the rug.