Type of relations staff engage in may be tied to job performance

The choices you make in life can have serious consequences on your job. Fotosearch 

By BONIFACE NGAHU

In Summary

• Your life is not necessarily detached from your job: employers are continuously taking more interest in the life of the employee.

News that two men in Mombasa have signed an agreement to share a wife has been a trending topic in the last one week. This is the kind of news where man bites dog.

My attention was drawn to the consequences after the news got viral.

One of the repercussions was that the wife in question threatened to sue the two men for defamation. That will be an interesting case as the men may argue that, they have actually made her famous.

Like other crimes of passion we expect there to be many twists and turns in this case. The other consequence was that one of the men involved has been sacked by the employer.

One of my friends asked me for the business case in firing a good employee because of his marital status or choice of spouse. I wondered whether there is a business case then I remembered some similar cases where employment contracts have been compromised because of such reasons.

We concluded that while it may be unfair for someone to be dismissed from employment because of choice of spouse or other relationship aspects it has always happened. The following are some case studies.

The ambassador whose hot wife was considered a national threat

In the book titled, Honey Money: Why Attractiveness is The Key to Success, there is a story about a certain ambassador who was married to a very beautiful wife from another country.

The wife was so beautiful such that the country which he represented as an ambassador to the foreign country considered her a threat to national interests.

As a result the employer required the ambassador to sign an undated resignation letter just in case the perceived threat become a reality. The job of a diplomat involves hosting delegates at the official residence where the wife would normally host the events.

This means she is actually part of the job.

Why the M-Pesa attendant’s new boyfriend is a lifestyle indicator of fraud

There is a trend highlighted in the current issue of a local monthly business paper captured by the headline: The enemy within- companies court lifestyle audit to stem rising staff fraud. The article highlights the increasing trend of fraud by staff.

According to the writer, this trend has resulted to employers opting to use unconventional means to catch fraudulent employees. The means include using polygraph tests similar to my lie detector app in my phone.

The other way is the use of lifestyle audits to understand the lifestyles of the suspects and compare it to their official income. Where the lifestyles seem to be much higher than the income the red flag is raised.