Lessons from the Weiner Scandal: Employee Loyalty Goes Both Ways

Let me begin by saying I strive to keep this blog apolitical and nonpartisan; my personal political views have no bearing on what TrivWorks’ audience is looking for, which are stronger teams and happier workplaces. However, when writing in response to the news of the day, I try to extract lessons wherever I see them – and recently, there’s been no escaping the escapades of NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.

We all know about his past online scandals, and I thought we’d hit rock bottom last week with this whole “Carlos Danger” thing. However, yesterday is when it truly bottomed out with the embattled candidate: a former intern went to the press with a tell-all story about the inner workings of the Weiner campaign, and let’s just say it didn’t paint a flattering picture (although her own picture did wind up on the cover of the New York Daily News).

In response, Weiner’s communications director went on an epic, obscenity-filled tirade with a reporter whom she thought she was speaking to off the record, calling the former intern things which I can’t publish here (but which you can read here).

Yikes.

Plenty will be discussed today around water coolers throughout the city and beyond; what I want to talk about, though, is loyalty. The way I see it, this recent saga is a classic example of what happens when there is no sense of faithfulness between employer and employee – albeit a very public one, with serious repercussions all around:

The Intern – Was it a scintillating and juicy story she told? You bet! However, any way you slice it, it’s just a dumb idea to badmouth a former employer – especially in the press. And if you want a career in politics. And when he might possibly become mayor. Where was her sense of fidelity to the candidate and the campaign? Why was the environment such that this employee felt no sense of loyalty to the job, the cause or The Man?

The Communications Director – Much will be written today about the wisdom of a press secretary trashing a former employee to a reporter using such offensive language. What I’m interested in, though, is: how did it get to this point? Was any care put into vetting, developing, and instilling a sense of pride and devotion into this staff member? Did this intern have the confidence that senior campaign staff “had her back,” and would take care of their own? An even bigger question: do staff currently employed by the campaign feel part of a team, building NYC into the city they want to see it as under their boss’s leadership? Or do they now fear being thrown under the bus for screwing up, too?

I think both the intern and the communications director were grossly in the wrong here – neither employer nor employee displayed any sense of respect, professionalism or wisdom in their actions. However, it was the complete lack of loyalty between the two that led to such a spectacular implosion, which ultimately hurts the business and The Boss more than anybody else.

Loyalty to company, loyalty to employee. It’s a two-way street.