Like a lot of folks, throughout my career I always had a "work spouse." Nothing romantic, let alone romantic+. Just someone I regularly had lunch with, gossiped with, shot the general shit with, bitched about senior management with (even when that "work husband" was senior management). Most of my WH's were straight, but I had a gay WH for a number of years.
I tended to be someone who got to work early, and one of my guys used to call me every morning while he was driving into work and we would have a 45 minute gab fest, mostly focusing on what if anything we could do to 'save the company' from itself. One morning, I got a call that I found odd, as he had let me know the night before that his wife had gone into labor. He was calling from the delivery room, where his wife was laboring away. Needless to say, I told him he was nuts and hung up on him. (They ended up divorced; we're still friends.)
Anyway, it's certainly possible that the CEO of Astronomer (a NY-based data analytics company) and the company's Chief People Officer (a.k.a., head of HR?) are just work husband and wife. But they sure looked like they were canoodling on the Gillette Stadium kiss-cam while attending a Coldplay concert last week. And the video screen at Gillette is gigantic, so the couple's reaction was up there in all its jumbrotron glory.
Likely nothing would have come from it if not for that reaction. Rather than just grin and bear the embarrassment of being caught on the kiss cam, the couple tried to duck and cover, causing the crowd to yuck it up. To make matters worse, Coldplay's frontman, Chris Martin, hadn't commented "Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy." Anyway, thinking it was interesting, a fan took a video of the reaction and went and posted it.
I have no idea how the video went from kind of interesting to viral sensation. And how it went from viral sensation to outing the couple as Astronomer's Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot - both married. They're not exactly household names, familiar faces. But the Internet always does its thing, so...
The Internet being the Internet, another woman in the frame was misidentified - and named - as a fellow Astronomer employee who reports to Cabot. So her name was flying all over the world, too. (One number I saw said that the video has been viewed over 100 million times.)
Anyway, once the 'net did its thing, the regular old media jumped in. I saw mentions on CNN, on Yahoo, on AP, in Newsweek, The Boston Globe, and in the Worcester Telegram, of all places. Because there is, of course, a Worcester connection. Byron and his wife own property in Central Mass, and his wife had/has a position at a fancy Worcester private school.
Not going to comment on the damage this may be doing to the two marriages involved. (Probably nothing good...) And you have to feel sorry for Byron's wife. Last week, she was a private person, just going about her life, now she's been thrust into the digital wack-world, with all sorts of randos (guess that inclues me) and outlets speculating about her, including the Hindustan Times. Ditto sympathy for their kids.
But from a professional point of view: this sure doesn't look good for the boss and one of his direct reports - which I'm assuming she is - to be carrying on.
And it doesn't just not look good. It's just plain no good, at least for Byron.
“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability,” the company said via LinkedIn Friday.
“The Board of Directors has initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly.” (Source: not surprisingly, the NY Post's notorious Page Six gossip page, which has been all over this saga, with multiple stories.)
As I said. NOT GOOD.
Look, people are allowed to have personal lives. And one of the likeliest places to find someone to have a personal life with is at work.
But many (most?) companies have rules about personal lives that involve lines of authority. And no company wants to get embarrassed like this. What company wants their CEO and Chief People Officer (CPO? What a bouncy old title that is!) to become fodder for Page Six?
Wouldn't want to be in the shoes of Andy Byron (or Kristin Cabot). Maybe they are just work spouses caught in an exuberant Coldplay moment. Maybe they're more than work spouses. It happens. But whatever it is, maybe they should have kept it in the office.
P.S. This was written on Friday. By Saturday, Andy Byron had resigned as CEO of Astronomer.
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