In light of the revelations about John Terry, I’ve been thinking about how much one’s private life should affect their standing in both society and employment. Does one’s private life have a responsibility to one’s public life? Does employment really have any grasp over the employee’s morals or ethics?
It’s quite a hard issue to form an opinion on. I suppose my first though is that if you accept a very public role, you have some responsibility to act in an honest and decent way. This said, I do think that there is an insatiable and intense media interest in celebrities’ private lives, probably more so than ever seen before.
I have to admit to being a little surprised by the reaction by the British public over the John Terry incident. I hadn’t realised they would think it all that bad. In some ways, it’s given us a topic of morality to form an opinion on, possibly egged on by the media. It would be interesting to know if John Terry had had relations with someone who wasn’t connected to a team-mate whether or not this would have caused such a reaction.
I wonder if he were a politician we’d be viewing the story differently. I think there is something to be said public responsibility and invariably that does fall over into private life. Having said that I do feel that there is something to be said for private lives being private. Again, I suppose where does that balance lie? Obviously Terry’s affair was part of his private life and technically his morals (or lack of) in this context are part of his private life.
Having some experience of a public life, I know the importance of having a private life which is seperate from public life. That said, I am fully aware of my responsibilities to my public life and don’t behave in a way in my private life which would not be conducive to my public life.
