Which is worse: incompetence or lust?

I wouldn’t for a minute sink to prurient discussion of the troubles that have befallen Britain’s Minister for Health (make that ex-minister). But Matt Hancock’s resignation after images of him passionately embracing his “special adviser” do bring up the question of what counts as sackable behaviour, in any work context.

 

The hapless Hancock did not have a stellar reputation during his two years in the job. Mind you, being health minister at any time is a difficult post (former Irish health minister Brian Cowen once described his department as “Angola”, and he didn’t mean everyone spoke Portuguese). Being health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, facing unprecedented challenges, would have tested the greatest mettle. Nobody suggested that Hancock had that quality, and if you are a follower of Dominic Cummings you would be familiar with his recent denunciation  and claims that Hancock should have been sacked for up to twenty specific failings because of his mendacity and incompetence. Nobody can prove any of this until the eventual inquiries into how the UK handled the pandemic are completed, which will be years away.

 

But it is striking how quickly the evidence of Hancock’s affair with Gina Coladangelo led to his resignation. The charge was that he was getting very close to his colleague/girlfriend at a time when the rest of the UK was forbidden to touch anyone other than immediate family, those in your “bubble”. But it’s unlikely that this would have caused his downfall if there were not sex involved. Sex sells, and it also sells you out. But isn’t that wrong? If you are lousy at your job you can keep it for years, but physically carry out an illicit affair in the office, or drunkenly approach members of the opposite sex after a cocktail party, and you can be dismissed. Declan Kelly, head of international consultancy and PR specialists Teneo, knows the latter too well this week.

 

My point is that incompetence should be far more of an issue than some misguided lust. People should not stay in a job they really can’t carry out, with employers or shareholders waiting for the moment when they do something offensive in the area of private behaviour, then pounce with marching orders. It just goes to show how little things have changed in fundamental attitudes in business or politics. I’m not saying that sexual predators should be given licence to wander the corridors of corporations. But affairs, of themselves, are surely not as bad as being useless in your professional role.