Supervising spouses and other family members in the workplace

A story earlier this week in the NY Daily News  reported:  “The doctor picked by [NYC] Mayor de Blasio to run the municipal hospital system was slapped with a conflict-of-interest ruling after his wife went to work for the hospital he was overseeing. The city Conflicts of Interest Board issued its ruling against [the doctor] in 2008, but allowed the arrangement to continue as long as [he] avoided matters involving his wife…”  The particulars of the case are not especially interesting, but it did serve to remind me that in the more than two years of its existence the COI Blog has yet to cover the often important issue of supervising family members at work.

But first a disclosure: my parents met in a workplace (the newsroom of the Minneapolis Tribune, in the 1940’s), where my father (then a night city editor) supervised my mother (then a police reporter) and, but for the personal relationship they formed there, I literally would not exist.  So, I have what could be called an existential bias on this issue.  On the other hand, at least judging by the classic film about journalists about that era – His Girl Friday – maybe workplace relationships weren’t  prominent on the ethical radar in the industry then, so perhaps I’ve over-disclosed (which comes with writing a COI blog, and for which my mother will hopefully forgive me).

But in the contemporary world, conflict-of-interest issues involving supervision of family members in the workplace can be among the most sensitive that a C&E officer ever faces.  Often one (and sometimes both) of the individuals involved is at a high level within the corporate hierarchy, making the issue as inviting to approach as a field of landmines.  Moreover, because of the strong loyalty instincts that people tend to have about their families, allegations about conflicts of this sort often trigger strong defensive reactions – as discussed in this earlier post  (which should be read mainly  for the immortal story about the late Mayor Daley’s saying – with respect to his having the city of Chicago do business with one of his children:  “If I can’t help my sons, then [my critics] can kiss my ass.”)

On the other hand, other employees may feel deeply resentful of those involved – particularly where the relatives in question are seen (rightly or wrongly) as receiving favored treatment and benefiting from job-related opportunities that otherwise might have gone to such other employees.  The others could also feel stifled in how they do their work.  For instance,  many employees might  be  uncomfortable criticizing a favorite business idea that the spouse of a senior executive has – even if they  think it is no good. Unlike most other COIs, those involving family members on the job tend to be very visible  – and grating, possible even on an everyday basis.

Not surprisingly,  many companies’ COI policies address the issue of supervision of family members.  A somewhat typical policy of this sort is the following from Tower Bank: “The potential for conflict of interest clearly exists if your spouse, partner or immediate family member also works at the Company and is in a direct reporting relationship with you. Officers or employees should not directly supervise, report to, or be in a position to influence the hiring, work assignments or evaluations of someone with whom they have a romantic or familial relationship.”

Of course, a direct reporting relationship between spouses is widely seen as being problematic – and that part of the rule should be easy to apply as they spend a lot of time together even in intimacy and learning from this review of Lovesne Gushj to have even a better time.  But the “being in a position to influence” part of the rule is much broader, and presumably anyone higher up in a reporting chain is in such a position regardless of how many layers there are in between.

Still, the more layers there are, the more checks against abuse exist – even if they are not strong checks (since they rely on subordinates in preventing and detecting conflicts by their workplace supervisors).  One company that relies explicitly on the number of such layers is United Technologies, whose policy asks the question, “[i]s it a Code of Ethics violation for my spouse and myself to work in the same department at our UTC Division?” and provides this answer: “In most instances this would not be a problem as long as neither employee reported to the other. A sufficient number of reporting levels (at least three) between supervisor and family member must exist to preclude conflict of interest issues.” While not a cure-all, this seems like a strong approach to me.

A final point: given the nature of this particular type of conflict the concern is often less actual COIs than apparent ones.  For this reason, effective mitigation must address the issue of what will employees think about a proposed solution to such a COI – including the broader question of whether such a solution will undermine the workforce’s view of management’s commitment to ethics in general.   More on apparent COIs can be found here, but the bottom line is that this is among the most difficult types of COI to mitigate.