Shortly afterwards, around 4am, her husband sent her a screenshot showing the kiss-cam footage had been published on TikTok. “I think you should know this is out there,” he said.
Ms Cabot insisted she never had an affair with Mr Byron or that they had even been physically affectionate, but saw him as a “good-looking guy” and had thought to herself: “If I didn’t work here…”
Her boss had always “made sure women had a seat at the table” and that she “was just as loud a voice in the room as everyone else”, she said.
“It was the first company in the male-dominated professions I’d worked in where I felt my gender was not an issue,” she said.
That was undone by the 16-second clip of the pair at the concert, she said, which turned her into the “most maligned HR manager in HR history”.
Ms Cabot said she was inundated with claims that she was gold digger or that she had slept her way to the top which “couldn’t be further from reality”.
Cabot has been told she is unemployable
“The amount I sacrificed to get where I did in my career, the amount of hands I’ve had to take off my ass over the years, comments I’ve had to swat away from men,” she added, saying that she had worked very hard to dispel that notion and was now being accused of it.
Astronomer opened an investigation into the incident, saying it expected its leaders to “set the standard in both conduct and accountability”.
Both Mr Byron and Ms Cabot left shortly afterwards, although she claims the board asked her to stay on. She has been looking for a new job since then, but has been told she is unemployable.
Ms Cabot had joined the company as chief people officer last year, at which time Mr Byron described her as a proven leader with a “passion for fostering diverse, collaborative workplaces”.
