Steve EasterbrookAlyssa Schukar/AP Images
McDonald’s ousted its CEO over a consensual relationship with an employee, just a week after US Rep. Katie Hill …
Steve EasterbrookAlyssa Schukar/AP Images McDonald’s ousted its CEO over a consensual relationship with an employee, just a week after US Rep. Katie Hill stepped down due to a similar allegation. Both McDonald’s and the House of Representatives ban sexual relationships between supervisors and employees. Whether such bans on consensual relationships are really necessary has been debated many times. And it seems reasonable to ask, shouldn’t mutually consenting adults be allowed to make these decisions for themselves? Based on my research on power and influence, I believe the short answer is probably not. McDonald’s and the House are hardly the first organizations to introduce bans on workplace relationships. A growing number of companies are clamping down on office romances, particularly those marked by power imbalances. A June 2018 survey found that 78% of human resources executives said their employers didn’t allow relationships between managers and direct reports, up from 70% in January. And academic institutions — including my own — are also increasingly prohibiting relationships between professors and students, deeming them inherently problematic. In the past, some organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, have been much more permissive. Opponents of these sorts of bans consider them to be paternalistic overreach, arguing that institutions ought not police the private lives and relationships of mutually consenting adults.
