The following is a guest post by Patrick Dailey, a senior human resources executive, who worked for Hewlett-Packard as vice president of global talent management during the time period when Compaq was being integrated into Hewlett-Packard. The opinions expressed are his own.
A hot, steaming mess was kicked to the curb late on Friday.
Messes like this are intentionally dumped on Friday afternoons following the closing bell to avoid notice. They are supposed to cool down over the weekend and hopefully be taken over by something new come market open on Monday.
But there was no way that this mess would go unnoticed, even after a late Friday afternoon announcement.
The executive responsible for creating it acted stupidly and was justifiably removed from his post.
But, the real story here is the back story.
Arguably the most sensationalized female plaintiff’s attorney, Gloria Allred, has been hired by Jodie Fisher, a 50-year-old single mother who made a sexual harassment complaint against Mark Hurd, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, and has her own sensational profile, appearing in provocative reality TV shows and movies. After HP curtailed Fisher’s lucrative marketing services agreement with them, Allred was hired and expected to advance the sexual harassment complaint.
