"It should be as simple as declaring a conflict, and stepping away from performance reviews or salary negotiations involving that person."

Ushering the executives out showed the AFL's top priority was its brand, according to Mr Bornstein.

"They want the tabloid newspaper's campaign to stop, they're worried about sponsorships, so they buckle to it," he said.

"The AFL should back its staff in and tell the media to go jump. It shouldn't be placing these unrealistic expectations on their staff, and forcing people out of work for matters which are almost entirely irrelevant to their employment."

Maurice Blackburn employment law principal Josh Bornstein says inter-office affairs should not be things to resign over. Jesse Marlow

The AFL declined to comment on Mr Bornstein's remarks, referring The Australian Financial Review to a statement made by AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan on Friday after the resignations.

"I expect that my executives are role models and set a standard of behaviour for the rest of the organisation," Mr McLachlan said in that statement.

"They are judged, as they should be, to a higher standard."


However Mr Bornstein disagreed that they should be, and said the AFL should not even have accepted the resignation of its diversity manager Ali Fahour after he was filmed punching an opponent at a weekend amateur football match.

Ali Fahour's resignation should not have been demanded over an incident that took place outside work, workplace lawyer Josh Bornstein believes. AAP

Mr Fahour's plight reminded Mr Bornstein of former SBS reporter Scott McIntyre , whom he represented after Mr McIntyre was in 2015 sacked by the broadcaster for tweets disparaging Australian servicemen in World War I.

"He tweets about Anzac Day on Anzac Day, his day off, and he has his career in Australia ended for it," said Mr Bornstein, who negotiated a confidential settlement with SBS on Mr McIntyre's behalf.

"Now Mr Fahour, who by all accounts was doing his day job well, punches someone on his weekend and the AFL demands his resignation. They need to toughen up."

The spate of AFL resignations were symptomatic of a culture where the divide between private lives and work lives had collapsed, with social media adding to the intensity of the problem.

"It is unfair to expect your employees to act as your brand ambassadors every moment of their lives," Mr Bornstein said.

The lawyer warned the AFL it was being counter-productive in its responses to the scandals involving Messrs Lethlean, Simkiss and Fahour.

"The more you give in to the demands of the tabloids and the shock jocks, the more encouraged they are to make them," he said.