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Notes -
My instinctive thought is to agree with you that it’s none of their damn business, and I find the whole reasoning about “power imbalances” in these situations to be shaky at best. So I wish it wasn’t this way, but from the perspective of the organization, it is much better to strictly prohibit employee relationships for a number of reasons.
People have been using the phrase “don’t shit where you eat” for a long time before MeToo or anything in that same vein. There’s obvious conflicts of interest and bad situations that can come about from coworker relationships.
But aside from the normal drama of breakups and stuff, there’s major legal liability to the organization, especially in something as public as an NBA team. If the woman wanted to come out and say that she felt pressured to hook up with the head coach of the team, and the organization found out about it and didn’t do anything, it would 100% cause a massive media shitstorm. There’s no amount of evidence you could show about the relationship being consensual that would matter.
There is also the matter of corruption. A boss handing out favours for sex is no different from doing for monetary bribes, regardless of whether the people involved perceives of the sex as such, it corrupts decision making in the organisation and is poison for team cohesion. Even just the suspicion of this happening is toxic.
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