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HP CEO Resigns During Sexual Harassment Investigation
A number of readers are letting us know that HP CEO Mark Hurd just resigned over sexual harassment accusations. The company's board has appointed CFO Cathie Lesjak as interim CEO. A contractor had accused Hurd of sexual harassment, and the board brought in outside counsel to investigate. While the harassment claim could not be substantiated, the investigation did uncover other misconduct. Hurd's "close personal relationship" with the contractor created a conflict of interest, and he was also found to have misused company assets. In a statement, Hurd said, "As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP and which have guided me throughout my career."
I realized ... I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that ... have guided me throughout my career."
Clearly the principles haven't been "guiding" him to within a tolerable deviance...
He "realized there were instances" of misconduct on his part? More like he realized he'd been caught.
More like, at some point in the investigation he realized that he was busted and couldn't cover up or plausibly deny things. He was probably feeling pretty untouchable up to that point after coming out unscathed from the other little upset they had a while back.
Anyone else's skin crawl as they read the rehearsed and empty words? Reeks of a sociopath saying what he thinks folks want to hear to let him off the hook. Funny how many seem to make it to the top.
If I was HP's board, I would not have let him resign; he would have been fired on the spot. Although I admit to being surprised that they didn't ham-handedly cover up the story; perhaps they learned their lesson with the wiretap fiasco from several years ago.
Most US banks never press charges against employee embezzlers. They are just quietly "let go."
Why? Would you do your business with a bank that had headlines in the news for embezzelers . . .?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
In Las Vegas, that type of contractor is called an "escort."
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
It only takes ONE "contractor" like this in a company to totally discredit any other incoming women, no matter how many times over they can prove that their technical qualifications and achievements were earned fair and square. People won't even bother to find out. They'll just *assume* she got her grades, degrees, honors and awards on her back, got men to do her homework for her, "managed" to take credit for other peoples' work in all other previous work experience, and just happens to "know what the words mean." Except that the a-hole men on the project will simply not listen, assume she's "got it all wrong" and then have to find out the hard way what her point was -- when the little boys walk right into typical traps for young players that she'd warned them about .... having more experience.
"contractors" like this piss me off even more than ethically-impaired sociopaths like Hurd. And for a *prostitute* like that to scream "sexual harassment" when he gets tired of her just makes a mockery of *real* cases of sexual harassment, which sorry -- goes on ALL the time.
He can have a consensual relationship all he wants, (I never recall a CEO getting fired over an affair) but HP found him using company funds for this relationship. That crosses the line into misconduct worthy of firing. It's perfectly legal to have a mistress, and not something a CEO is going to get fired over. But he should have paid for the whole fling out of his own pocket; too many CEOs treat the company treasury as their piggy bank. As if their outsize salaries aren't big enough already...
And apologizing to the managers and employees would be appropriate here; nothing steams employees more than executives only paying lip service to a company's "values." The non-apology wasn't worth the paper it was written on. (It wasn't until he was investigated that it dawned on him it was wrong? *blech*)
It wasn't harassment because she probably agreed to the whole deal (likely up until the point he decided to dump her.)
Oh, and the "no panic" plan doesn't seem to be working. HP is down 10% in after-hours trading. (Which makes sense... an abrupt CEO transition from an executive that by all accounts was doing a good job is going to be tough.)
I love how "lack of judgment" has become the newest euphemism for "crook". Misappropriating funds, preferential treatment for a contractor (which really is a form of theft too), and instead of being labeled a conniving embezzler, he gets the wooly "profound lack of judgment" crapola.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I can't seem to remember ANY employee of a tech company that had anything good to say about the company they work for...
Wow, a 53 million dollar reward for sexual harassment, theft, and other misconduct to horrifying to speak aloud. Friends we are in the wrong goddamn industry.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
$50e6 probably sounds very reasonable when you're accustomed to making $30e6 every year. It's funny, how small must have his fraudulent expenses been, compared to being paid over $100K every single work day. He probably feels like he just got fired for going home with an HP ballpoint pen in his pocket.
you don't consider EDS, 3COM and palm a spending spree ???
holly jeebus in a pogo stick, man! the guy spent nearly 20 giga dolars on those. i bet carly is proud of him (except for the harrasment thingy, of course)
What ? Me, worry ?
SBC training is about limiting the companies liability when there is a lawsuit. The purpose is not to "train" or "educate" employees. The purpose is to be able to say "we made it clear that this is not how you should act so this is the employee's fault - don't sue us".
Mmmm.. Donuts
Nope. The employee would not have been escorted out - they would have been arrested for theft.
I mean the decisions to ditch quality and over-engineering all their products, and instead start buying up other companies like Compaq in order to become a computer services company to compete with IBM, were made by the HP board, not by the CEO. (As opposed to the HP tradition of being a high-end hardware supplier that innovated through basic research.)
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Divorce and take half?
That's the best question. Oh, well you caught me being a dirt bag, give me my 50mill to go away. One of our former cio's got caught doing the same thing, except she also left us with years of crap to clean up. Her prize for being an equal scumbag, another multi-million dollar golden parachute.
Except at the executive level where it's actually needed.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Here's the thing that gets me: Why do I see the headlines on Google News, CNet and CNN hours before it's on Slashdot? I remember (not too long ago even) when /. would have articles out far in advance of mainstream media.
I'm guessing that the difference here isn't the accusations, its the fact that in Hurd's case, investigation based on the allegations turned up all kinds of misconduct against the company.
Sexual harassment allegations (especially when made by someone else where the alleged victim isn't backing them up, whether or not they have been paid off) can be difficult to substantiate even if true, and people in power can draw lots of false allegations -- OTOH, things like misappropriating company resources for personal use are often leave evidence that is far more cut and dried.
It's not an euphemism.
Being a crook is not a disqualification for being a CEO, being a *stupid* crook is - if you get caught doing something unethical for little or no monetary gain in a way that is easy to prove, you show "profound lack of judgement".
**Sniff** I remember when HP was a well respected company and its equipment was built like a tank
That was when they were engineering products instead of marketing commodities.
The president gets blowjobs from an intern and he doesn't have to resign; the CEO did something similar and he has to resign.
The president didn't force or even coerce anyone to suck his dick. He only lied about it under oath, and it was a question being asked to try to establish something about allegedly nonconsensual sexual advances, meaning that it never should have been asked as it was irrelevant to the case, and asking the question was a political act.
Hope this helps.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"