Andrew Bolt: AFL is out of bounds on affairs

THE AFL should get its nose out of the love life of its staff. By what right do bosses sack executives who’ve had sex with consenting colleagues, asks Andrew Bolt.

By what right do bosses sack executives who’ve had sex with consenting colleagues.

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THE AFL should get its nose out of the love life of its staff. By what right do bosses sack executives who’ve had sex with consenting colleagues?

The latest example is the forced resignations of AFL executives Simon Lethlean and Richard Simkiss.

Be clear: neither man is accused of abusing his authority to con vulnerable women in the office into having sex. Indeed, Simkiss’s affair was with an AFL legal counsel, Ali Gronow, who as a lawyer and former associate of Fair Work Australia, seems more than capable of looking after her rights, particularly at work.

Lethlean’s affair was with a mid-level football executive, Maddi Blomberg, who the AFL thought savvy enough to run Auskick in NSW and the ACT.

What’s more, Blomberg’s texts to a friend, mysteriously passed on to the Herald Sun, suggest to me this was an affair of the heart and not a story of a defenceless girl forced into bed by a tyrant boss.

In one text, Blomberg complains Lethlean won’t leave his wife for her: “He said he has feelings cares about me bla bla bla. But the reality is he has a baby due in 3 weeks and 3 kids. That’s the reality and it won’t change.”

And Blomberg makes clear this relationship was hers to end: “If he cheats and is unhappy and says he cares and always contacts me. It’s ultimately my decision.”

Maddi Blomberg

Simon Lethlean. Picture: AAP

Absolutely true. And as AFL boss Gillon McLachlan points out, neither women has lodged any complaint of mistreatment.

So let’s not lazily assume the women were victims of predatory men — that last-century stereotype.

Let’s not repeat the mistake the media made with Amber Harrison, first portraying the executive assistant as the sweet lover betrayed and broken by her powerful Channel 7 boss, Tim Worner.

Let’s not repeat the mistake the media made with Amber Harrison.

That tale sure looks stupid after the collapse of Harrison’s case for compensation, particularly after the court was told of texts she allegedly sent a friend in which she boasted of trying to ruin the reputation of another former lover, also a senior figure in the media industry.

So in this AFL case we have two capable women who chose to have affairs with married men at work.

Yes, in neither case did it end well, but so? More fool all involved. And pity the families.

But to repeat, even if you think this immoral, what business is it of the AFL as long as no one involved used their power to reward their lover or threaten them? Which, it seems, they didn’t.

Yes, I know: letting executives sleep with colleagues raises the risk of them playing favourites at work. Then there’s the broken hearts that can turn a workplace sour.

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No surprise that bosses don’t want that, just as they’d rather their executives didn’t drink, take drugs, drive too fast, skydive or go to bed late. But when did law-abiding employees have to surrender their private lives — even their hearts — just so a boss could have an easy time at work?

This is not a merely academic question.

I first met my wife at work when she was a mere cadet reporter, and I’d bet tens of thousands of Australian couples also hooked up at work.

Where better to find a partner, especially for the driven?

Where are you more likely to keep bumping into someone who shares your interests?

Ask how many doctors married a nurse. Should they all be sacked?

Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, married one of his executives. Should he have sacked himself?

Then look at the double standards.

If the worry is that affairs encourage favouritism, let’s also sack executives who go drinking with workmates. God knows what favours they do each other. Let’s prohibit hen’s nights with work colleagues, too. Can’t have female executives then favouring the sisterhood.

Bill Gates married one of his executives. Should he have sacked himself? Picture: AFP

And does the rule cut both ways? Will bosses also sack predatory staff who seduce male executives in the hope of promotion?

But if we really must ban love from the workplace, let’s at least get some clarity.

Do these rules also apply to male executives sleeping with male employees?

To female executives sleeping with women?

Or is that too politically tricky?

And if a female executive sleeps with a male her junior, which one gets the sack?

So, true, it is safer for an executive to not drop their pants. Or G-string.

But it seems hardly fair to insist they can never fall in love at work. What boss could be so heartless?

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