"A rich and powerful VC is almost always going to have more power than any woman he meets."
It means that he should be very careful in doing so, and in any case never do this in the course of his work - e.g: in the course of negotiating with entrepreneurs, or even co-workers.
I suspect that if this happened in a non work situation, it wouldn't gather this amount of outside attention. Would a tech VC, hitting on a TV anchor or an actress(say) be considered inappropriate, if he has nothing to do with the media business?
I genuinely don't know. But I suspect if he keeps his love life separate from work, things would get tremendously easier.I think "power imbalance" becomes a factor only when a working relationship is involved.
Still, interesting question. I think it behooves anyone who has significant money and/or power to be very careful in conducting their love lives.
My personal strategy is to avoid flirting with or hitting on anyone from the same industry entirely, but I think it's pretty restrictive. People want to have common interests with their partners, and both working in tech is a common interest so I can understand why people pursue it.
It's quite clear that hitting on a subordinate is unacceptable, but when you don't work together it's a lot less clear. Would flirting with someone at a conference party be harassment? What if you were from different companies, but at equal levels? What if you're a VC and she's an entrepreneur (but she hasn't mentioned raising money from you)?
"Would flirting with someone at a conference party be harassment? "
People have been evicted from conferences and lost their jobs for using 'inappropriate' language that some one passing by happened to hear.So yes, I would think this is a dangerous thing to do, and possibly a violation of the conference's code of conduct if it has one.
I made no comment on whether such things 'happen all the time' or not. They probably do (and remain potentially dangerous for the careers of people who do).
My point is that saying they're dangerous (and we shouldn't do them) is not really helpful, since humans being humans we'll likely still do it. Instead, I'd like to think of ways to reduce the harm and make the dynamics less problematic.
Like, in theory coworkers should never date but in practice that's impossible to enforce. So many companies instead enforce a ban on relationships down the chain of command, which is both workable and addresses the biggest power dynamic.
It means that he should be very careful in doing so, and in any case never do this in the course of his work - e.g: in the course of negotiating with entrepreneurs, or even co-workers.
I suspect that if this happened in a non work situation, it wouldn't gather this amount of outside attention. Would a tech VC, hitting on a TV anchor or an actress(say) be considered inappropriate, if he has nothing to do with the media business?
I genuinely don't know. But I suspect if he keeps his love life separate from work, things would get tremendously easier.I think "power imbalance" becomes a factor only when a working relationship is involved.
Still, interesting question. I think it behooves anyone who has significant money and/or power to be very careful in conducting their love lives.