[solusglobus]

This is more than just "puff out your chest, be a man and get the girl". This whole event is rooted in evolutionary psychology. The power dynamics has unconsciously shifted towards the employee. This is like a power frame which is adopted in Pitch Anything (http://www.amazon.com/Pitch-Anything-Innovative-Presenting-P...). To overcome a power frame, you need to break it. If not, he will always submit to the employee's power frame unconsciously. This is not good for his productivity, his leadership, his being as a man and ultimately his company. One way to break the employee's power frame is to fire him.

[hnriot]

You're neglecting the wife in this armchair psychology. There's a much mor complex power dynamic going on entirely.

[solusglobus]

Regardless of what the wife did, attraction is unconscious. The employee in this case is clearly the better man from evolutionary point of view instead of ethical point of view. At deeper level, he invested a lot in the employee, maybe...maybe too much (typical Mr. Nice Guy) that the employee is like the master and he the servant. Women are unconsciously attracted to men of power since the dawn of time. Also, it takes two to tango. The employee has a choice. This event can be prevented in many ways.

[drivebyacct2]

Well he's obviously "not a real man" because he didn't have his woman in line. (On the off chance it's not obvious, /s). I still have the heebee-geebies feel from this thread's misplaced sense of "masculinity"; so glad I opted out of that forced culture as a young child.