American business leader Natalie Dawson, President of Cardone Ventures, has sparked a heated online debate after divulging that she fired two employees on the spot for their extramarital affairs, stating their deceitfulness was a liability to her firm’s atmosphere.
Appearing on The Diary of a CEO podcast with Steven Bartlett, Natalie did not shy away from her more contentious decision, explaining that she finds personal and professional ethics to be inextricably linked. "If they're going to cheat on the person they're supposed to spend the rest of their life with, do you think that they're cheating on their work? That person is a liability to the environment," she said.
Co-founder and former chief operating officer of the successful firm that scaled to $225M in revenue, Natalie reinforced the leadership obligation toward cultural "trust and accountability". She strongly considers them as "the same person that shows up to work" regardless of whether their issues stem from their private life.
Her admission has sharply divided opinion across social media platforms. Supporters praise her hardline stance on integrity, arguing that tolerating dishonesty in any form signals "moral bankruptcy" in business. One user commented on X, "If you can't keep your personal life out of the office, maybe you shouldn't be in the office at all."
However, many critics have taken the CEO to task for being "power drunk" and crossing the line separating employees' off-duty conduct from their work performance. At the core of counter-arguments is the belief that so long as the employees are doing their jobs right and in a timely manner, their manager should not interfere with them.
In a LinkedIn post, Natalie responded to the backlash, saying her action had been one of "protection," not "punishment". She said that she has to "hold the line on integrity" to set the right standard for her team, adding "The culture you build depends on what you allow." The incident shows a growing tension in modern workplaces over how far a company's ethical expectations should extend into an employee's personal life.
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