Dating conflicts of interest: I generally agree, but I’d like to flag that I think there are no cases mentioned in the post where people are romantically involved who work for each other. If people have some recent case. I’m open to being proved wrong (eg find some specific case of a grantmaker writing a grant to a partner). But I just don’t think this happens. Maybe it used to happen in early EA days IDK, but I’d not think this has happened for years, because the reputational harm is great enough that it should incentivize grantmakers to recuse themselves and let an alternate review the application.
Now, rare exceptions:
I disagree that grantmakers who don’t have alternate grantmakers they can call in to determine grants from their managed fund should not be allowed to grant to a partner who applies. This amounts to barring romantic partners of people to apply for some grants. Not only do I find it unethical and somewhat arbitrarily controlling (“you and only you, oh romantic partner, is not allowed to apply even though your project may very well be the best”), but this would systematically disadvantage women applicants as majority of EA grantmakers are straight men. It’s possible this is a moot point basically, as almost every EA grantmaker could recuse themselves and someone else could do the job. But there are the rare tiny funds like Scott Alexander’s regranting program. Should his wife not be allowed to apply?
In cases of startups and small projects, people should be allowed to hire and cofound with their romantic partners, and they can keep those positions for as long as it makes sense to them
Simply living with: I disagree that people who work together or for each other should not be housemates, as a mandatory rule. It should be on a case-by-case basis and I think people’s incentives are generally aligned so they make the useful choice here. So until I heard something weird I wouldn’t even bother looking into it tbh.
Your grant hypo is likely moot because making the grant without the partner recused would probably be unlawful—at least in the US and if a nonprofit were involved. That’s self-dealing and improper inurement (private gain) in my book.
Hm, if you say so. Then I really don’t know what people think is going on with EA funding that the legal system wouldn’t handle. I really have not heard of anything that I’d call actually-bad once you do your own digging.
EAs are really careful about who we give money to. That’s kind of our thing.
I think this is generally correct, but not sure “living with” is clear enough, given that I don’t necessarily have any problem with a boss and employee living in the same group house, if they aren’t dating. (I’d imagine there could be some weird power dynamics for votes on house rules, etc. but I don’t think it’s necessarily an ethical problem, and hope that adults could work out how to deal with that.)
Suggestion of concensus opinion:
People should not be dating or living with those who work for them. If they start, they should tell HR so they can be transferred.
Dating conflicts of interest: I generally agree, but I’d like to flag that I think there are no cases mentioned in the post where people are romantically involved who work for each other. If people have some recent case. I’m open to being proved wrong (eg find some specific case of a grantmaker writing a grant to a partner). But I just don’t think this happens. Maybe it used to happen in early EA days IDK, but I’d not think this has happened for years, because the reputational harm is great enough that it should incentivize grantmakers to recuse themselves and let an alternate review the application.
Now, rare exceptions:
I disagree that grantmakers who don’t have alternate grantmakers they can call in to determine grants from their managed fund should not be allowed to grant to a partner who applies. This amounts to barring romantic partners of people to apply for some grants. Not only do I find it unethical and somewhat arbitrarily controlling (“you and only you, oh romantic partner, is not allowed to apply even though your project may very well be the best”), but this would systematically disadvantage women applicants as majority of EA grantmakers are straight men. It’s possible this is a moot point basically, as almost every EA grantmaker could recuse themselves and someone else could do the job. But there are the rare tiny funds like Scott Alexander’s regranting program. Should his wife not be allowed to apply?
In cases of startups and small projects, people should be allowed to hire and cofound with their romantic partners, and they can keep those positions for as long as it makes sense to them
Simply living with: I disagree that people who work together or for each other should not be housemates, as a mandatory rule. It should be on a case-by-case basis and I think people’s incentives are generally aligned so they make the useful choice here. So until I heard something weird I wouldn’t even bother looking into it tbh.
Your grant hypo is likely moot because making the grant without the partner recused would probably be unlawful—at least in the US and if a nonprofit were involved. That’s self-dealing and improper inurement (private gain) in my book.
Hm, if you say so. Then I really don’t know what people think is going on with EA funding that the legal system wouldn’t handle. I really have not heard of anything that I’d call actually-bad once you do your own digging.
EAs are really careful about who we give money to. That’s kind of our thing.
That said this is slightly more complex if people have one-off hookups with people. Not really sure what norms should be there.
I think this is generally correct, but not sure “living with” is clear enough, given that I don’t necessarily have any problem with a boss and employee living in the same group house, if they aren’t dating. (I’d imagine there could be some weird power dynamics for votes on house rules, etc. but I don’t think it’s necessarily an ethical problem, and hope that adults could work out how to deal with that.)