Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee • Hacker News Board

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#111

Post by paulddraper » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:26 PM UTC

sbinthree wrote: post #5

There is no way you would fire a CEO you actually wanted in place because they had a consensual relationship with a subordinate in the past . Why are US companies always so aggressive about moralising these issues? No one would take issue if he carried a gun at work. Why is it that corporate morals rule?

> Why are US companies always so aggressive about moralising these issues?

Or consider Mozilla's week-long CEO who years earlier donated $1000 to a popular ballot initiative supported by most California voters.

Be careful how you vote, citizen. Your livelihood depends on it.

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#112

Post by msisk6 » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:27 PM UTC

ghein wrote: post #76

amyjess wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem wasn't that she was a coworker. It was that she was a subordinate. Nobody cares if two engineers hook up, but it's a Very Bad Thing if your boss starts putting the moves on you. Relationships where one person holds real-world power over another are prone to exploitation and violation of consent.

All relationships at work are a bad idea. They're dangerous to the firm and bad for the people's involved careers. Best rule for everyone is no relationships between co-workers and if one happens both people are fired.

Awhile back one of my co-workers got involved with a contractor. Apparently the relationship went "bad" at some point and one of the parties decided to get HR involved. Both were fired immediately.

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#113

Post by kanox » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:28 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #32

dokein wrote: post #19

So obviously relationships are bad when there's a power dynamic, and between different management levels is a common subset of this. However it feels like many people are spending more and more time at work, and it also seems cruel to say: "you cannot get to know anyone romantically during 50-75% of your waking day."

The problem wasn't that she was a coworker. It was that she was a subordinate. Nobody cares if two engineers hook up, but it's a Very Bad Thing if your boss starts putting the moves on you. Relationships where one person holds real-world power over another are prone to exploitation and violation of consent.

> Nobody cares if two engineers hook up

It matters because if one of those people gets promoted it can break the policy.

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#114

Post by kanox » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:28 PM UTC

berbec wrote: post #109

xexers wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's a Very Bad Thing It's happened probably 10s of thousands of times in the past few decades... and some of those couples are now happily married. I personally know of a boss who married his secretary and a professor who married a student. I think the words "Very Bad Thing" are a little excessive. It's risky behavior.

I hired the woman who would become my wife.

Clearly you should both be fired.

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#115

Post by jhayward » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:32 PM UTC

dokein wrote: post #19

So obviously relationships are bad when there's a power dynamic, and between different management levels is a common subset of this. However it feels like many people are spending more and more time at work, and it also seems cruel to say: "you cannot get to know anyone romantically during 50-75% of your waking day."

Among married people something like 50% of couples met their spouse at work. It's going to happen, it's best to have an open and above-board way of co-existing with fraternization rather than simply banning it, which is idiotic.

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#116

Post by arcanus » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:32 PM UTC

ckastner wrote: post #22

Relationships among employees are very hard to keep concealed -- especially so when you're in a very exposed position, as a CEO is. At some point, somebody is going to notice something. If this is the case, then I'm pretty sure that this knowledge had reached the board long before. Rumors spread fast, after all. That leaves me to wonder as to the timing of this action. Krzanich received a lot of flak over the past mo…

> That leaves me to wonder as to the timing of this action. Krzanich received a lot of flak over the past months... it's not entirely unthinkable that the board was sitting on this information and only now used it to get rid of Krzanich without making it look like it's one of the other major issues he could technically be blamed with.

Agreed. AMD is breathing down INTC's neck, particularly in servers. Board wants a different direction.

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#117

Post by zepto » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:33 PM UTC

ggg9990 wrote: post #50

lord_ring_11 wrote: post #16

Why is this even worth discussing?

Because the worlds most important tech company and the one on which all others are based just fired its CEO.

The world’s most important tech company? Maybe in the 80s, but that hasn’t been true for a long time. Intel has nothing unique anymore.

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#118

Post by walshemj » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:33 PM UTC

jrs95 wrote: post #89

walshemj wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably saw this coming and wanted to convert stock into cash to avoid ay small print about stock clawbacks.

Would that qualify as insider trading? Seems like Zuck did a similar thing recently before Facebooks most recent privacy scandal

Don't think so if he did it because to move to the next process would be delayed a year yes.

Its a legal principal that you have the right to arrange your affairs to maximise your benefit - if he thought they where trying to oust him cheaply by using something from his past - I don't see the issue.

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#119

Post by stamps » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:33 PM UTC

InTheArena wrote: post #93

Intel is in serious trouble right now.They accidentally gaffed recently and stated that their goal was "to keep AMD from getting more then 10-20% of the server market" while they deal with a whole bunch of engineering and fab problems with their current generation of chips. They are also looking down the barrel of Apple abandoning Intel, and for the first time in two decades, unleashing a true X86 competitor to the m…

Why do you think Apple would develop an x86 chip over other architectures?

Re: Intel CEO resigns after relationship with employee

#120

Post by acdha » Thu, Jun 21, 2018, 2:35 PM UTC

sbinthree wrote: post #5

There is no way you would fire a CEO you actually wanted in place because they had a consensual relationship with a subordinate in the past . Why are US companies always so aggressive about moralising these issues? No one would take issue if he carried a gun at work. Why is it that corporate morals rule?

Quoting the article: “An ongoing investigation by internal and external counsel has confirmed a violation of Intel’s non-fraternization policy, which applies to all managers.”

It's not just the specific act(s) but the fact that he knowingly broke policy, which raises the question of whether he decided other policies also didn't apply to him. CEOs have a lot of power and enormous compensation and, at least in theory, that's founded on their judgement.