About the best I can say for the work week is that I survived it. Our dreaded staffer briefing got postponed, one of our two big decision meetings resulted in no decision, and our other swirl means that we're going to be kicking off a big review of our program. So it's not as bad as it could have been, but it's still going to keep us all busy for weeks to come. I mostly tried to stay out of the way, writing a couple of technical background papers and reviewing a particularly tedious document.
My weekend was no more exciting, as I've had a cold since Wednesday evening. I did go into work Thursday and Friday, largely because I felt obliged to with all the big events going on. But I was totally wiped out this weekend and only went out to get some needed groceries and the newspaper.
Which brings me to talking about the news of the week. It strikes me that corporate sex scandals are getting duller and duller as time goes on. I refer, of course, to Harry Stonecipher's forced resignation as CEO of Boeing. Let's see - a guy who is separated from his wife has a consensual affair with a woman who doesn't report to him. Exactly what is the big deal? The Boeing statement said that his having an affair wasn't an issue and, while they're being a bit wishy washy about it, it sounds like they don't think he had any influence on her career. (By the way, the Washington Post published the woman's name, which strikes me as interesting, but it has no bearing on what I want to say so I will omit it.) Now, the whole thing came to light due to some indiscretion in an e-mail, so maybe that was what Stonecipher's cited "lack of judgement" was about. But would the same e-mails have been an issue had he sent them to his wife? It sounds like there's some corporate overreaction going on here. I'm also predicting that the woman in question will resign, especially now that her name has been made public.
The bigger scandal - though it got less press - should be the one at Habitat for Humanity, whose head was forced to step down after the third round of allegations of sexual harassment. The interesting part there is that Jimmy Carter is defending Millard Fuller's behavior as just being the way Southern men behave. Come on - there is a difference between being excessively touchy feely and groping the ass of a woman who works for you. Carter admits that his own touchy tendencies made some women uncomfortable. So what exactly is so hard about stopping something if you can tell it is annoying the person you're doing it to? Sheesh!
Copyright 2005 Miriam H. Nadel