Marriott just fired an employee because she's a Democrat

[badtoworse]

69. I guess you've never worked in financial services

Banks and financial service firms go to great lengths to prevent employees who could potentially use confident client information to advantage from obtaining such information. Sparing you a dissertation, there is the private side of banking that has access to confidential client information and there is the public side that manages funds and client investments. Between them is "the wall" and the public side and the private side do not work together or exchange information. Even social contact is discouraged. A "wall crossing", i.e. allowing a public side employee into the private side requires review by legal and compliance, as well as the approval of senior management. Why? Banks are extremely sensitive to even the appearance that its employees could be using confidential to the bank's to their personal advantage.

There are potential similarities here. There is no way to know what information an internal auditor had access to, but even the appearance that she might be in a position to misuse confidential information in her campaign could be sufficient for Marriott to bar her from running. Might seem far fetched to you but companies really do worry about things like that.

Beyond that is her platform. I don't know what she is running on, but what if she is taking positions that the company believes are not alligned with its interests? Marriott is supporting her opponent for a reason and if her platform is substantially different (and likely unfavorable to Marriott's interests), then she is putting herself in conflict. If she wins, whose interests would have priority, Marriott's or her constituent's? I don't buy the "she can abstain from voting" argument for a minute and I would not accept that if she worked for me. Marriott likely sees it that way as well and that is their perogative.