I'm actually surprised by HP on this one, maybe even a little impressed, given HP's actions in other recent moralliy and ethically questionable situations, maybe the PR machine warned them that another internal fiasco like the one Carly Fiorina engineered would sink them, HP would go down faster than the Itanic!

mines the one with built in life vest...

Of course the doofus was shown and signed to abide by the HP code of conduct as a condition of employment, so it's hard to imagine this was the first time he'd engaged in such shenanigans during his illustrious career.

IBM was lucky to be rid of him, and now HP too. But how was he allowed to develop this pernicious habit at IBM? Hmm ... .

I worked for a multinational company where, die to the ineptness of the IT folks, an marketing executive who left for a competitor, set up email forwarding for him directly to his new job. (IT: Would you like us to set up email forwarding when you leave? Just email us your new address.)

For about a year he got cc’d on all of the marketing, planning, engineering & customer service chatter.

The grass may be greener on the other side but don't pee on the lawn where you came from.

L.A. Woman

This guy is living proof of the Dilbert Principle - that only idiots get promoted to senior management. I mean really - an email marked as "For Your Eyes Only". That's a bit like having a private conversation in a crowded lift. The first thing you should assume about email is that someone other than the intended recipient is going to read it at some point. How IBM and HP managed to hire this guy in the first place is the real mystery.

Incidentally, John, IBM makes its serfs sign a set of guidelines every year, basically saying that they won't do this sort of thing. A bit like the "are you a terrorist?" question - if you do something like that, they don't have to prove what you did was illegal, just that it was against the guidelines, which you agreed to abide by. So if it had been the other way round, IBM would have done exactly the same thing as HP.

AC because, well...

This is another fine example of Freedom. AmeriKKKan style.

His action was normal operating procedure. Part of an exec hire's appeal is the portfolio of information and contacts he brings.

This happened as a direct result of HP's paranoia after the board bugging fiasco. They probably feared it was a setup.

All too familiar with the 'SOP' arguments concerning violations of trust. The pervasiveness of this sort of behavior leading to a grudging acceptance of it or even suggestion for its necessity for good business is a topic too broad for this forum.

The doofus label goes more to the exec's sending of the material to other execs using email, for which sort of actor I have been at a loss to find any other suitable descriptive term.

Unaware of the incriminating trail he was leaving? - doofus

or indifferent to the same? - two sets of rules, leading perhaps to

Expecting the other execs to accept incrimination also by receiving the material? - doofus

The last being the the IBM culture question.

Finally, for the business-world weary, there's nothing in this story (yet) to say that HP doesn't still have the 'trade secrets', the show of purging the VP notwithstanding.

An IBM Printer bizz memo? He was obviously sending it round as a joke!! "hey, you guys, have you seen what those guys at Armonk think the printer bizz is about?"

I'll have the "Multi Function by Nature" jacket, please!