Signs of the times?? - 3/8/05

[smartmarriages at lists101.his.com]

Two USA Today lead stories.  Which way doth the wind blow?

- THEY WROTE THE HANDBOOK ON HOOKING UP
- EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR TOPPLES BOEING CEO

#################################
- THEY WROTE THE HANDBOOK ON HOOKING UP
By Carol Memmott
USA TODAY
March 8, 2005 

This is on the front page of USA Today's Life section - with photo.

> Dating, as we know it, has gone the way of dinosaurs, say Lavinthal and
> Rozler, both 25.
> Technology and lifestyle, they say, have changed the way men and women
> interact.
 
Don't bother looking up ³hookup² in the dictionary. The newest definition
has nothing to do with washing machines or sound systems.

Most twentysomethings know what it means. For the rest of us, there's The
Hookup Handbook: A Single Girl's Guide to Living It Up (Simon Spotlight
Entertainment, $14.95).

Spotlight, which focuses on ³hip² non-fiction, also released last fall's
He's Just Not That Into You: The No Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys by
Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo. It was a hit (1.9 million copies in print)
and remains on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list (currently No. 26).

Hookup authors Andrea Lavinthal and Jessica Rozler define a hookup as
³anything from making out to doing the nasty.² Adds Rozler: ³Most people say
it's somewhere in the middle.²

Dating, as we know it, has gone the way of dinosaurs, say Lavinthal and
Rozler, both 25.

Technology and lifestyle, they say, have changed the way men and women
interact.

Rozler says she and Lavinthal ³wanted to write a fun book about what's going
on² between the sexes. There are chapters on hookup hot spots,
hookup-friendly bachelorette pads and the latest hookup lingo.
(³Schick-blocked² means opting not to hook up because you haven't shaved
your legs in a week.)

No surprise, of course, that sex sells ‹ even in bookstores. But the authors
stress they are not advocating casual sex. ³That's not what this is about,²
Lavinthal says. ³You can be hooking up, you can be in a serious
relationship; it doesn't matter if it makes you happy.²

Lavinthal and Rozler can't imagine a time when women sat at home waiting for
the phone to ring. Cellphones have changed all that. As they write,
³text-messaging is the new phone call Š IM is the new face-to-face
conversation.²

³If you go to a bar, you see girls and guys text-messaging each other,²
Lavinthal says. Adds Rozler: ³The whole waiting-by-the-phone thing is
eliminated, because you can take your phone with you.²

Do the authors practice what they preach?

Lavinthal says she's into a ³Back to the Future² hookup with her
ex-boyfriend.

Rozler says she's single and hooks up, ³but I'm not a completely wild and
crazy person Š no more than anyone else.²

³Or any less,² Lavinthal adds.

################################
- EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR TOPPLES BOEING CEO
And, this story is on the front page of the USA Today Money Section with big
photo of the toppled CEO.

> Public disclosure of affairs have embarrassed other former top executives,
> including former General Electric CEO Jack Welch and ex-Tyco chief Dennis
> Kozlowski. But it has taken far more salacious sex allegations to topple most
> CEOs. During the late 1990s, the CEOs of drugmakers AstraZeneca and ICN
> Pharmaceuticals and chemical giant W.R. Grace all lost their jobs amid
> sexual-harassment charges.
 

Diane: 
Here is another article on infidelity and the workplace. It Looks like the
issue of extramarital affairs is not just being used in courts as follow up
to big business law suits as an earlier article you shared reported, but as
a critical issue for corporate leadership decisions. This article basically
says that this CEO had an extramarital affair and that the company was not
okay with the implications that had for leadership, trust, honesty, etc.
Maybe times really are changing?  Kelly Roberts

(For earlier article: Infidelity and the Character Question:
http://archives.his.com/smartmarriages/2005-January/msg00016.html)

- Extramarital affair topples Boeing CEO
He violated code of conduct he implemented

By Byron Acohido and Jayne O'Donnell
USA TODAY
March 8, 2005  

SEATTLE ‹ In the end, Harry Stonecipher failed to practice what he preached.

Scandal-sensitive Boeing said Monday that it had asked the 68-year-old
Stonecipher to immediately resign as president and chief executive over an
extramarital affair with a female company executive.

In just 15 months in the top job, Stonecipher had restored much of the
credibility the Chicago-based aerospace giant lost in a Pentagon procurement
scandal that sent two company executives to prison. The best measure of his
performance: Boeing's market valuation had climbed 50% during his tenure.

Stonecipher made the restoration of corporate ethics a top priority at
Boeing, setting him up to be toppled by an indiscretion that may have been
winked at in an earlier era. Stonecipher came out of retirement in December
2003 to replace longtime chief executive Phil Condit, who resigned over the
Pentagon contract scandal.

CFO James Bell, a 32-year company veteran, was named interim CEO, and Lew
Platt, non-executive chairman of the board, will take on expanded duties
during the search for a replacement.

Public disclosure of affairs have embarrassed other former top executives,
including former General Electric CEO Jack Welch and ex-Tyco chief Dennis
Kozlowski. But it has taken far more salacious sex allegations to topple
most CEOs. During the late 1990s, the CEOs of drugmakers AstraZeneca and ICN
Pharmaceuticals and chemical giant W.R. Grace all lost their jobs amid
sexual-harassment charges.

Platt revealed at a morning news conference that Stonecipher's affair had
been disclosed 10 days earlier in an anonymous letter from another employee.
Boeing provided few details of the affair and withheld the identity of
Stonecipher's lover. The anonymous letter mentioned correspondence between
Stonecipher and a ³longtime² female employee of the company. The missives
suggested the two had been having an affair since January.

Allegations that Stonecipher had influenced his alleged paramour's career or
salary proved false, Platt said.

Still, the relationship violated the company's code of conduct, which
Stonecipher recently implemented and required all employees to sign once a
year. The ethics code says employees will not engage in conduct that causes
embarrassment to the company.

Stonecipher's ³poor judgment Š impaired his ability to lead,² Platt said.

Boeing brought in an outside firm to investigate the allegations.
Stonecipher and the female executive were interviewed. With the
investigation heating up, the brusque-talking Stonecipher carried on
business as usual last week.

He met with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
McCain was a vocal critic of the $22 billion contract Boeing landed to
supply the Air Force with 100 767 refueling tankers.

Congress scuttled the contract last fall, after a former Air Force
procurement officer, Darlene Druyun, admitted she sought and landed a
$250,000-a-year job at Boeing while championing the contract. Druyun and
former CFO Mike Sears were fired and received prison sentences ‹ she for
nine months; he for four.

Stonecipher is the former longtime CEO at McDonnell Douglas. He joined
Boeing when the two giants merged in 1995. On Friday, acting Air Force
Secretary Peter Teets announced that the Air Force was lifting a two-year
ban on bidding by Boeing's rocket launch division as a penalty for stealing
a competitor's proprietary documents. The ban cost Boeing more than $1
billion in lost contract opportunities.

Stonecipher also was working to shore up other big Boeing contracts,
including supplying the military with a new communications network called
Joint Tactical Radio System, or JTRS, which has been beset by delays and
cost overruns.

³We thought we were in a new era of ethical reform at Boeing, but it looks
like the ethical quagmire continues,² said Keith Ashdown, policy analyst at
Taxpayers for Common Sense, an advocacy group.

In recent years, ethical and moral standards increasingly have become
entwined with questions about executives' fitness to run their corporations.
Joseph Sellers, the attorney who brought a sweeping sexual-discrimination
class-action lawsuit settled by Boeing last year, said the company was smart
to act fast when it learned of the affair.

Boeing agreed to pay up to $72 million to settle the lawsuit, which involved
allegations female employees were unfairly denied promotions and raises.

³The fact that gender discrimination was an issue in the workplace ought to
make the company especially sensitive to not tolerating evidence of sexual
misconduct by senior executives or other managers,² Sellers said.

Sellers said high-level affairs, especially by CEOs, are ³extraordinarily
unwise² whether or not that are prohibited by ethics or conduct codes. ³They
are fraught with risks because whether they began consensually or not, at
some point they will no longer be regarded as consensual, and the person in
the higher-level position will be blamed for the consequences,² he said.

For most of the 1970s and 1980s, Boeing was led by conservative CEO TWilson,
then Frank Shrontz. Both had long, successful marriages; Wilson even lived
in the same modest suburban home for his entire career.

But Condit set a different tone. BusinessWeek in 2003 reported on Condit's
³reputation as a womanizer, often with Boeing employees,² and his ³appetite
for the high life.² The magazine reported Condit had been married four
times.

At least one of Condit's four marriages was to a Boeing secretary. A
subsequent relationship with a receptionist led to a legal settlement after
the woman lost her job, BusinessWeek reported.

Investors on Monday reacted calmly to Stonecipher's ouster. Boeing shares
dropped 8 cents, to $58.30.

Chris Lozier, aerospace analyst at Morningstar, credits Boeing for its
swift, decisive action

³Boeing is not in a position where it can leave any doubt in people's minds,
so I think the board acted appropriately,² he said.

Stonecipher's ouster was the main topic of discussion among the more than
500 aircraft financiers, consultants, brokers and airline officials
attending the annual conference of the International Society of Transport
Aircraft Trading in Arizona.

The news caught attendees by surprise, including luncheon speaker Scott
Carson, vice president of sales at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Carson said
he found out in an e-mail at 6 a.m. Monday before flying out of Seattle.

To read the complete article, visit:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050308/1b_boeingcover08.art.htm

> The code of conduct, published on its Web site, says, "Employees will not
> engage in conduct or activity that may raise questions as to the company's
> honesty, impartiality, reputation or otherwise cause embarrassment to the
> company." The statement also states that employees have the responsibility to
> "report suspected violations."
 

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