NO SUCH THING AS A PRIVATE LIFE
Ultimately, I’ve come to believe that there is just no such thing as a private life when you’re the big boss. This has been increasingly the case for years, but the Astronomer mess illustrates how, in the era of social media and smartphone video, it’s become more literal.
For better or worse, it’s impossible for any of us to assume the expectation of privacy when the cameras are always on and the internet is always watching. If you are a CEO who doesn’t recognise this as the current state of affairs, you are probably too reckless or delusional for the job.
In fact, this is the part of the story that does suggest we’ve entered a brave new world. In the olden days, a CEO might get fired for an inappropriate office romance after a whistleblower sent in a tip. An investigation would ensue. A statement would be drafted. More often than not, the company would have a chance to strategise before the news went live.
In this case, we can assume the Astronomer board found out about its CEO’s misbehaviour at the same time as everyone else. It took the board more than 24 hours to respond to the jumbotron video and another 24 passed before Byron resigned.
That created a vacuum, which the internet was only too happy to fill. Online commenters firebombed the LinkedIn accounts of both Byron and his jumbotron co-star, Astronomer Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot (both ultimately deactivated their accounts). They misidentified another concertgoer as the company’s VP of people, also leading her to take down her LinkedIn page.
They found Byron’s wife on Facebook. They wrote a fake statement from Byron, and it made his name the most popular trending term on Google. They bet on Polymarket on whether he would get divorced or lose his job. They created thousands of hours worth of memes.
You can’t really say the company lost control of the narrative since it never had it to begin with. A playbook does not exist for a CEO’s indiscretions being exposed in such an instantaneous, public and humiliating way. But this is a sign to corporate boards that they better start preparing one.
