You Know What? Nothing In This Gates Narrative Fits.

The big current developmemt in the Bill Gates story, as we're expected to believe it, is that Gates left the Microsoft board as a result of a 20 year old consensual affair with a subordinate that ended amicably. There appears to be no disagreement that this affair took place, and Gates's spokespeople acknowledge it. So let's put on the brakes.

"Consensual" affairs in the workplace between superior and subordinate are common as dirt. Companies may or may not have policies governing them specifically, but in practice, they're handled on a case by case basis, with the organization usually looking the other way until it's absolutely necessary to take some action, which often as not just involves transferring one or both parties to separate them.

A "consensual" affair in and of itself is not "sexual harassment", which strictly speaking is a quid pro quo requirement that the subordinate put out or be subject to adverse action from the superior. If it's "consensual", that's not the issue. Naturally office romances occupy a huge gray area. If it's a party office, and there's a general expectation that everyone has to party to get along, that's a "hostile work environment", but you do have to prove that in court.

I'm also lukewarm at best with the Melinda-as-wronged-woman part of the narrative. She had an MBA and had worked at Microsoft for roughly seven years before she married Gates. She presumably had a clear understanding by that time about how executives act, and in fact how their subordinates sometimes act, which probably included knowing how Gates himself acted. She was 30 and no ingenue. (If I were on the marriage tribunal deciding on her annulment, those are questions I'd ask, but dei gratia, that's someone else's problem.)

The difficulty I have with the whole Gates-consensual-affair story as we hear it is that it's not clear if Gates violated any particular Microsoft policy by having it. It was not "sexual harassment" as normally understood. Whether it created a "hostile work environment" is also completely unclear. It was poor judgment 20 years in the past. But Gates nevertheless left the Microsoft board before the investigation was completed. And not only that, he resigned from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway board the same day. Wha? Is everyone else on the Berkshire Hathaway board such a total boy scout, so Gates is the odd man out and has to leave it, too?

Gates's spokespeople are now saying the affair isn't why he left the Microsoft board. This is one of the few things being said about this that I actually believe.

Let's look at the timing here and what else was going on. Here's the word from Microsoft:

“Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000,” Microsoft said in a statement. “A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm, to conduct a thorough investigation.

So there was some problem reflecting bad personal judgment, almost certainly not a legal issue in itself nor potentially even a violation of company policy, 20 years in the past, and the Microsoft board sets up a committee and hires an outside law firm for an investigation? How much are all those partners and associates billing? And Gates leaves in the middle of said investigation, eliminating a need for a final report? Yeah, I'll go along with Gates, this had nothing to do with a flippin' consensual affair. Gates was doing that stuff throughout his career, and it was general knowledge.

Er, what else happened in "the latter half of 2019", as the board so delicately put it? Oh, that's right, Epstein was arrested in July and got suicided that August. A lot of stuff came out, much of it probably not public, in conjunmction with those events. And some montbs after that time, during a confidential investigation of something that was likely really serious, not only does our boy Gates leave the Microsoft board, but he leaves the Berkshire Hathaway board as well, the same day, even though there was never any hanky pank at Berkshire Hathaway.

And oh by the way, right about the same time, Melinda, who by all accounts was already thoroughly familiar with Gates's ways but seems to have made her accommodations, suddenly decides to hire a divorce attorney. We may assume this isn't just the divorce-injury-bankruptcy guy down the street, either.

You know what I think? I think Melinda's wondering if the putative $130 billion in the Gates fortune is actually in the bank. That's what I think. I wonder if this has also occurred to Mr Buffett.