A C-suite office romance can trigger a crisis, so having a plan to manage it is critical
We've all seen the video - the moment the CEO of tech company Astronomer was caught snuggling with the company’s Chief Human Resources Officer on the kiss cam at a Coldplay concert. The global attention has moved on, but Astronomer is still dealing with the fallout, which now includes the CEO's conscious uncoupling from the company and the HR chief also leaving.
While there is limited capacity for an employer to regulate an employee's out-of-hours activities, workplace romances can create significant ethical, legal, and reputational risks – particularly if a clear power imbalance or a reporting relationship is involved. When one involving someone in the C-suite is revealed, voluntarily or involuntarily, it can lead to frantic out-of-hours phone calls as management scrambles to deal with it.
What would you do if you received one of those frantic phone calls? That depends on how well you are prepared for the particular risks and consequences.
It's certainly not unusual for people to form personal relationships at work, including romantic ones, and experienced managers will be familiar with some of the challenges they can create in the workplace. Those challenges are not only greater when the romantic entanglement is at a C-suite level, but there are more of them.
Relationships between CEOs or executives and their staff can...
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