The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that in a classic corporate move, Royal Bank of Canada announced it had fired its chief financial officer on a Friday at 6 p.m. ET, firing off a press release well after the business press had gone home. Guest columnist Paul Deegan writes that RBC's CFO had allegedly engaged in "an undisclosed close personal relationship with another employee," that the employee received "preferential treatment ... including promotion and compensation increases," and that two individuals had been terminated as a result. Though RBC did not elaborate on the nature of the relationship, in any large organization you can find countless examples of "close relationships" between employees, often in the form of office romances. The more senior you are, the bigger the target on your back. The bank should be commended for not putting up with shenanigans in the C-suite. The personal relationship at RBC was not the first of its kind, nor will it be the last. Corporations must terminate employees who confer benefits, including promotions, opportunities and compensation increases when they have conflicts of interest, but they must also exercise great caution in how they deal with such situations.