MeToo has highlighted the perils of romantic workplace liaisons between people with unequal power
of Steve Easterbrook’s exit from McDonald’s matched that of Don Thompson, his predecessor, in 2015. Mr Thompson was pushed out for poor performance. Not Mr Easterbrook, who was widely admired for doubling the American fast-food giant’s share price. On November 3rd the company announced it was sacking its British-born boss because of “a recent consensual relationship with an employee”. Chris Kempczinski, who runs its domestic business, takes over.
Bill George of Harvard Business School called Mr Easterbrook’s departure a “tragedy” for McDonald’s. In Europe ousting a capable, a German daily, commented that, “luckily”, German labour law would bar such a move. In 2005 a court in Düsseldorf ruled that the German subsidiary of Walmart, an American retailer, could not ban its employees from flirting. Critics of restrictions on workplace romance warn that they can backfire.
Mr Easterbrook is not the first company boss booted out over a dalliance at work—and unlikely to be the last. In 2018 Intel’s chief executive, Brian Krzanich, resigned after the chipmaker discovered a similar affair. One in three American adults are or have been in a workplace romance, according to a poll this year by the Society for Human Resource Management, an association ofMr Kempczinski will emulate Mr Easterbrook’s strategy of switching to healthier fare and digitising operations.
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