McDonald’s fired its president and CEO, Steve Easterbook, the fast-food giant announced on Sunday, saying he “violated company policy and demonstrated poor judgment involving a recent consensual relationship with an employee.” Easterbrook, the top executive since 2015 who helped launch all-day breakfast and delivery, reportedly confirmed the reason in an internal email: “I engaged in [a] recent consensual relationship with an employee, which violated McDonald’s policy,” he wrote. “This was a mistake. Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on.”

No further details were given about the employee or the relationship, but the repetition of the word consensual is clearly key, especially as McDonald’s employees have made multiple misconduct allegations in recent years, including at least 23 sexual-harassment and gender-discrimination claims in 2019 alone, which were announced by the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the labor group Fight for $15. In May McDonald’s said it strengthened its sexual-harassment policy, including creating interactive training and an anonymous hotline.

And yet the fact that Easterbrook was let go over a consensual relationship is proving somehow unjust to some. “Considering they're pushing this as a consensual thing, you gotta wonder what the big deal is for McDonald’s brass,” an especially crass TMZ story editorialized on Sunday. “Ya can’t have your apple pie there and eat it too, apparently.” Various news outlets seemed to minimize the fact that Easterbrook admittedly broke a stated company rule: One U.K. radio headline said he was “forced out” over an “office romance”; as another headline framed it, he was “sacked after admitting relationship with fellow employee.”

That language, however, ignores the power dynamic at play: Yes, technically Easterbrook and the fry cook at your local franchise are both McDonald’s employees. But in terms of corporate hierarchy, they are hardly coworkers; Easterbrook, who made an estimated $15 million last year, is not just their boss but likely their boss’s boss’s boss. As CEO he had few if any equals at the company, which could make even a consensual relationship incredibly complicated. At the very least it’s messy and distracting. But at worst it could blur the confines of consent altogether: When the person you’re with has the power to fire you, you may consent to things that you otherwise would not.