We're not loving it—McDonald’s CEO fired over consensual relationship with staff member

News outlets this week have been abuzz with the news that McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook has been fired from his powerful position after breaking company rules by having a consensual relationship with a subordinate. McDonald's has a strict company rule that managers cannot date subordinate under any circumstances—and as company CEO, Easterbrook was essentially banned from having any relationship with anyone at the company.

This decision came at a hefty price for McDonald's. Steve Easterbrook is credited for turning around the company, which was struggling due to a shift in American mindsets and eating habits. The loss of the man responsible for McDonald's recovery ended up being a financial loss as well—to the tune of  a whopping $4 billion dollars lost in stock value.

What makes Easterbrook’s ousting especially ironic is the fact that McDonald's has come under fire recently for repeated allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace. There is a class action lawsuit currently pending against McDonald’s,  which has been spearheaded by the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. That suit involves over 20 women who are former McDonald’s employees who allege that they were subjected to sexual harassment and retaliation while employed at McDonald’s. Lawsuits and media reports about the toxic and abusive culture at McDonald’s restaurants have been so widespread that several United States senators have come forward to demand that McDonald’s implement better policies and processes for dealing with allegations of harassment from employees.

This onslaught of negative press for McDonald’s is perhaps a factor as to why the board made the decision to fire Easterbrook. Although the relationship that Easterbrook had with the employee was consensual, McDonald's has a clear policy in place regarding dating while working for McDonalds. When the corporate stakeholders at McDonald’s learned of the allegations that Easterbrook had a relationship with a subordinate, an investigation was launched, and Easterbrook quickly resigned. Even Steve Easterbrook himself recognized that the decision made by McDonald’s was the correct one, commenting in an email to staff, “I engaged in a recent consensual relationship with an employee. This was a mistake. Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on."

While firing Easterbrook came at a price, it may be a sign that large corporations are taking seriously the new workplace standards demanded by the #MeToo movement and changing public opinions regarding workplace behavior. Eastbrooks’ ouster sends a clear message to employees that no one is immune to the rules.  Were the same level of scrutiny and thoroughness applied to McDonald’s numerous sexual harassment complaints,  it could go a long way to repairing both McDonald’s legal and public image problems.

The national conversation on sexual harassment has rapidly accelerated, and continues to shift and morph. American workers are now rightfully demanding harassment-free workplaces, and McDonald's may find the stock loss suffered after Eastbrooks’ departure to be light in comparison to what would happen if customers boycotted them over their sexual harassment policies. McDonald’s, this week at least, succeeded in letting their walk match their talk in taking tangible actions towards creating a workplace that is free of misconduct and the abuses that often result from skewed power dynamics. we can hope that McDonald's will set a quality example for all businesses large and small to follow.

The Triangle Takeaway: Today’s modern workplaces require clear policies, distributed to all employees, which outline the standards for conduct in the workplace. Furthermore, when allegations are made regarding misconduct, companies must engage in an immediate misconduct investigation and come to a final conclusion regarding the allegation. And when an allegation is substantiated, commensurate corrective action must be implemented, regardless of the ranking of the alleged wrongdoer. Triangle Investigations offers policy-writing services, as well as a group of expert investigators who independently and thoroughly investigate allegations of misconduct.