Yesterday, Steve Easterbrook, the Watford-born CEO of McDonald’s, was fired for having a consensual relationship with an employee. In an email to staff, he said the relationship was a mistake, he had shown ‘poor judgement’ and ‘violated company policy’.
And so begins the next chapter of #MeToo: how do we detangle and dismantle gender-based workplace power politics when crimes haven’t actually been committed? Easterbrook didn’t break the law and the relationship was consensual, although we have no details of who the relationship was with. Yet cleary McDonald’s believed he had done something very wrong, or, more likely, feared the external condemnation from others. Why else dismiss the man who had turned around your failing fast-food chain?
Easterbrook did, as he admits, break company rules. And, arguably, dismissing him for breaking a company policy sends a message that actions have consequences, even if you're the boss, a message that feels distinctly and disastrously absent in positions of power right now.
But many will not just see this as a case of violated company policy, but a reaction to #MeToo. So far the movement has exposed great injustices such as harassment and abuse – crimes in the eyes of the law. But Easterbrook isn’t charged with any of these allegations. And so cue male journalists hysterically complaining that men can no longer put kisses on emails or flirt with co-workers or go out with colleagues. ‘I met my wife at work!’ they’ll scream into the internet.
It is not clear when McDonald’s began this policy, but it is not an unusual one. Indeed, Congress instigated a post #MeToo policy that forbids relationships with subordinates, something that congresswoman Katie Hill violated and lost her job over recently. There are many reasons a workplace would enforce it: a relationship could be a distraction and therefore a loss of productivity, and then there is the potential for favouritism and lack of professionalism. But there’s another reason: power.
Easterbrook is a very powerful man. Last year he earned $15million, the year before he ‘peaked...at a total of $21.8m including $9.1m in incentive-based pay’. Money is power, as is running one the world’s most successful brands, a giant symbol of capitalist Americana. If such powerful men are permitted relationships with staff, what does that mean for the staff, who are less powerful and more vulnerable, reliant on jobs to feed families and pay mortgages? How do the scales start to tip, and where do they stop? If the most powerful man in the company is allowed to have a romantic relationship with a subordinate, can anyone really say, exactly and categorically, where the boundaries between the powerful and the powerless are?
The point here is not Easterbrook’s personal relationships. It is that, historically, the culture of power in the workplace has allowed men to do whatever they like.
Because we know that blurred lines are dangerous. We have seen this through the #MeToo movement and how sexism works more generally. If a hand on a knee isn’t so bad, then perhaps neither is a hand on a breast or up a skirt or round a throat. Crimes against women and other marginalised communities have always been on a sliding scale, one that is linked, an extending ladder that can gradually build into bigger and bigger actions of hate and discrimaiton. So the point here is not Easterbrook’s personal relationships. It is that, historically, the culture of power in the workplace has allowed men to do whatever they like, pushing further, inch by inch, crime by crime, with no rules or boundaries to stop them. And crucially, no rules or boundaries to protect the most vulnerable.
Many will just see an individual – but Easterbrook is part of a much bigger picture. Tanya Harrell recently led walkouts of McDonald’s staff demanding minimum wage in the US. She also said workers had filed dozens of complaints with McDonald’s demanding that the company take action to address sexual harassment. Harrell told The New York Times ‘With the firing of Steve Easterbrook, we now know why,’ she said. ‘It’s clear McDonald’s culture is rotten from top to bottom.’
It would seem that those with the least power were being exploited, and on several fronts. Meanwhile, the top of the business is ‘violating company policy’. This isn’t about consenting adults, it’s about creating a fair workplace for all. And how can you expect to enforce a healthy power dynamic in the workplace if it’s not clear the CEO knows, or cares, what those boundaries are?
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