<p>The thing that puzzles me is that we are talking about a man in his 50s who, one assumes, got the job based on relevant work experience (which seems rather extensive based on my wikipedia “research”), rather than his undergraduate degree major. Such resume padding at this stage of his career is idiotic and wholly unnecessary. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, I disagree with Mr. Loeb (who sounds like kind of a jerk, frankly) that the remedy is firing Mr. Thompson. If I were a board member I’d want to do a cost/benefit analysis of two choices: fire the guy or publicly reprimand him while standing behind him because there are reasons other than his undergraduate major that make him the best person for the job. In other words, is the public relations problem more of a burden than the disruption to organizational order that might be caused by having to pick a new CEO? Are there other reasons Mr. Thompson is not fit to do the job? As a shareholder, those other reasons, if they exist, would be much more compelling to me.</p>
<p>Lest someone wish to accuse me of moral relativism, let me just say I think the lie should be exposed and the record corrected. But unless Yahoo has a policy of firing people upon the discovery of resume padding, termination of Mr. Thompson’s employment needn’t be the board’s next move. Anyone out there ever embellish a resume? A little, maybe? What level of embellishment would you say calls for your termination (or your boss’s or a staff member’s)?</p>