CNN case exposes risks of hiding romances at work

Among all the risks involved in a workplace romance, the most common source of trouble, according to experts, is allowing it to remain a secret.

A clear example was the sudden departure this week of the executive director of CNNJeff Zucker, who said he was “wrong” not to be frank with the network about a consensual relationship he had with another executive.

Zucker only admitted his relationship with CNN’s chief marketing officer, Allison Gollust, after being questioned about it during an investigation into host Chris Cuomo, who has already been fired. The change in management comes at a key time for CNN, and senior staffers have expressed dismay that things haven’t been handled differently.

“He should have taken that into account,” said David Lewis, CEO of Operations Inc., a human resources consultancy. “He decided to circumvent what was a policy that his employer had clearly stated. The problem with that is, once he decided not to say it, there was no chance of a positive outcome.”

CNN declined to comment for this article.

Zucker is far from alone in finding love in the office. Nearly a third of workers in the United States say they are or have been in a romantic relationship with a co-worker, and the trend has been on the rise since the pandemic began, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). initials in English), an association of the human resources sector.

Most large companies have a policy regarding romantic relationships in the workplace, but most businesses in the country do not, according to SHRM. Corporate policies can range from prohibiting all types of relationships or only those between directors and subordinates. Other companies simply require that they be reported.

Among the smaller establishments, there is rarely any type of guideline in this regard. Nearly 80% of all American employees say their employer does not require them to disclose an office romance, according to the most recent data from SHRM.

And that can cause almost as many problems as employees hiding their relationship from a company that has a policy in place.

Having a policy protects workers from benefit-sharing relationships, protects morale in a company, and in theory is also protection against lawsuits and scandals.

“The companies that choose to turn a blind eye are the ones that are allowing embers to become hell,” Lewis said. “Countless organizations have chosen not to deal with this head-on and have paid dearly for it as a result.”

The #MeToo movement shone a spotlight on toxic — and sometimes criminal — sexual violence in the workplace that even the best office dating policies are unable to prevent. That includes the Miramax movie studio, which was unable to address the long list of accusations against Harvey Weinstein — who was ultimately convicted of rape and assault — and the stain on the NBC brand’s reputation after the allegations of sexual misconduct against host Matt Lauer.

Hidden consensual romances create their own problems for companies, especially when they involve top executives. Due to the potential to alter power dynamics, a relationship with lower-level employees is often against policy, even if consensual.

When such a relationship comes to light, it often unleashes a public relations nightmare. In 2019, McDonald’s fired CEO Steve Easterbrook after he admitted exchanging videos and text messages in a non-physical, consensual relationship with an employee.

McDonald’s prohibits managers from having romantic relationships with direct or indirect reports. The company later sued him in 2020, when other relationships he had lied about came to light. Easterbrook ended up returning $105 million to settle the case.