It can be easy to overlook a silly office romance and not realize how the relations can affect the working environment and productivity of a company. The experts of the Harvard Business Review made a lot of salient points including how she should navigate pursuing a new position while keeping the same financial benefits. I was not thinking so much about how she could negotiate compensation or waiting until her stock options have vested, but I’m glad these points were included in the discussion.
On the other hand, I disagreed with some points made by Firestone and Lazar that seemed very unsympathetic towards Elizabeth and didn’t put enough focus on Brad’s actions. For example, Firestone writes that “[Elizabeth] is unable to control her reactions and put the episode behind her” and “she’s upset and distracted”. I believe that these are strong assumptions about Elizabeth’s character that was derived from small snapshots in time and text messages. Yes, maybe Elizabeth was unable to stay neutral at the time and justifiably so! But, it doesn’t necessarily mean that she will continue to have the same reactions and emotions; there’s a chance that her reactions will change and she can refocus on what’s important. Unfortunately, if her colleagues don’t create a safe working environment for her and maintain professional boundaries, she may slip back into the same reactions. But, I wouldn’t use her reactions and emotions to justify why she needs to get a new job, at least from this moment.
Secondly, Firestone continues to make assumptions about what Elizabeth is going through. “Her real mistake was in letting herself become too invested in someone who wasn’t as invested in her and failing to think through the consequences,” ( 112). Firstly, Elizabeth did consider the relationship at the company: she considered that he wasn’t her boss, he didn’t evaluate her pay, she rarely interacted with him at work etc. Instead of saying that she failed to think through, I would say she may have not considered the other common pitfalls that occur when pursuing an office relationship. I would talk about why maybe her considerations were short-sighted. For example, you may not see him at work, but your colleagues could see him and make connections. More empathy towards what Elizabeth could have considered is much needed in Firestone’s response.
Firestone could learn from Lazar’s point about how “there is no evidence that Brad has been counseled to keep his affairs low-key or to stop dating subordinates.” I did not think it was fair that there was so much focus on Elizabeth’s actions, Elizabeth pursuing an office relationship, Elizabeth not being to “control her reactions”, etc. An office relationship is mutual! Brad needs to be counseled about the situation and should not be left off the hook. I agree with many points about how this seems to be a male-dominated environment and there’s management bias. I agree heavily with Rudra Swain that there seems to be “integrity issues with the leadership” of this company and Lazar that strong leadership should be “sensitive to professional boundaries and power imbalances”. If I was on leadership, I would not let Brad flaunt his relationship in the office, nor would I make comments about their relationship in the working environment. I would make sure that there is a more comprehensive policy about pursuing office relationships, but how everyone in the company (regardless if you’re in a relationship) should treat office relationships. Additionally, I would want to make a safe reporting mechanism for people who feel uncomfortable with how an office relationship is affecting a working environment.
In my eyes, Elizabeth does not need to prove her worth in order to receive respect and support from her colleagues. Leadership should be prepared to support her whether she chooses to stay in or leave the company.
