Extra-Marital Affairs in the Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Extra-Marital Affairs in the Workplace - Essay Example In January 1998, The Washington Post broke, for the first time in mainstream media, a story about extra-marital affair United States President Bill Clinton was having with 22-year old, White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news shocked the American and international public. A story like that does not happen every day, so the media had a field day for months. The President, himself, swiftly denied any sexual relations with Lewinsky, but, subsequently under the burden of evidence that included infamous blue dress, admitted to it and was charged with perjury. His license to practice law was suspended in his home state of Arkansas, and he was, also, fined $90,000 for giving false testimony to the grand jury. Furthermore, predominantly Republican Congress impeached him as a precedent in the U.S. history. Clinton was tried by the Senate and in the end, was acquitted of all charges. This vote in the Senate allowed him to stay in the office for the remainder of his term. Later on, Clinton personally, called the whole episode â€Å"a terrible moral error.†(CNN.com, June 21, 2004) â€Å"Monicagate†, as it was called, illustrated in very clear terms, the consequences of inappropriate relations between supervisors and employees in any workplace environment. Clinton’s post magnified to the fullest the hype around it, and somewhere in that hype, public forgot that this was nothing more or less than a boss and his subordinate engaging in ethically questionable activities. As a counselor, after meeting my clients, I was posed a serious question. My first assertion of the issue was to resolve the problem in the least harmful way as I was clearly presented exclusively with negative outcomes. Both of my clients were married, there was a significant age difference between them and one was much higher ranked than the other.