Sean was an equal as he was a business partner (50-50 at that) with Pete on MTO. It also not unheard for a (small) business to hire friends and family for a variety of reason, nepotism is found just about anywhere.Superiors having relationships with subordinates is blatantly inappropriate. That ain’t a “red flag;” that’s right in front of you. It’s taken to another level entirely with the age dynamic of 20+ years AND an/the owner?! And sharing hotel rooms for work trips?? Good grief, people.
Dustin mentioned he was given his own stateroom for appearances so unless Craig followed Dustin back to his stateroom every night, what is it to him where Dustin does on a cruise? Also sharing hotel rooms for work trips is quite common as it saves the company money.
Dustin is an employee but from the Dis live/video show perspective, he was it's founder (if anyone had any doubts, in the farewell show Pete said the studio will be forever the house that Dustin built and everything that came after that was because of Dustin’s work). Pete talked fondly of Dustin and Dustin was super good at his job and was trusted so Craig could have thought Pete while the owner is the "first amongst equal" when it came to launching this endeavor and Dustin is pretty much at Pete's level when it came to control of the channel. Dustin mentioned they hid the relationship at first but when it did come out, Craig could chalk that up to Craig was the new guy so Pete and Dustin might not trust him enough yet with all the details.
Yes dating within the organization is bad HR practice and yes there must have been hints of something darker in Sean and Dustin's relationship with Pete but Craig does not have a background in HR and he is certainly isn't a psychologist/social worker/doctor that would be expected to pick up on something the parties in question never mentioned and actively hid.
I single out Craig (and I’m sorry Craig) but it’s pretty much ditto for all the other employees that we might accuse of not speaking up. To top it off Dustin, Ryno, and Craig consider each other friends so if Dustin never told them as close as they (thought they) were and Pete affirms Dustin is de facto the top dog, how are they to accuse their “superiors” of hurting each other? Ryno expressed regret that Dustin never confided in him all those years. Sean said he kept his distance with the “employees” for a variety of (selfless) reasons.
Any reasonable person will assume conflict between two owners is none of the employees business (unless actively told otherwise) and not jump straight to SA.
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