Phaneesh man u broke the most cardinal rules in having affairs.. which is never get your money and your honey at the same place..
on Aug 26, 2013All through the 4 pages of the article, i was expected more details of the case as the heading \"How the Cookie Crumbled\" indicated but it seems the author has no idea of what \"Cookie Crumbling\" means. God save Forbes India...
on Jun 4, 2013Very well written piece Mitu. People in senior positions have custodial responsibilities. It is not a question of moral education. It is pure issue of propriety. Even if these are consensual relationship, they have no place if the two are in custodial equation. In my experience most organisations are blind. They are unable to deal with these early and in an clnical manner especially when the person involved is senior. The more conservative the board and the boss they doubt the woman\'s version and foolishly go with the man\'s version without enquiring. A few even try to mediate and settle thinking that they are running a school or a panchayat. All these end up in misery for the organisation. In my experience over 12 years 30 to 40% of the cases are genuine. Most others end up being cases like that of Pahneesh where the complaint is preffered after the relationship turns sour. These are the difficult ones to deal. There are about 30% cases where the lady who knows she is going to be terminated or is not pulling her weight in the organisation prefers a alse complaint, hoping that she can later take the defence of retaliation against the organisation and claim back employment or benefits. I know that this is a controversial point which some will attach. But the truth is all the 3 exist. Real cases of harrassment, Complaint of harrassment afetr relationship turns sour and grossly false complaint. That is why it is important for senior people in any organisation not to get into relationship with people for whom they are responsible. Equally it is important for the boards to not take side and be clinical in demanding a policy and process to enquire all complaints of harrssment with out any delay. It is preferable to get the pricess in motion within a fortnight and close it within a month. This helps evidence to be current and no chance for after thoughts. Any organisation which want women in significant numbers to work for them, cannot achieve it without reassuiring their ladies that the policies and procedures and not just statements willprovide them a safe work place.
on May 30, 2013I don\'t think the writer of this article really knows what \"how the cookie crumbled\" means or when to use it. This article has nothing to do with how the story unfolded or what happened, it is just describing the person.
on May 29, 2013Guys, please do your research correctly. Its not 2, its 3. You may have probably forgotten Jennifer Griffiths who came and went between Rita Maximovitch and Araceli Roiz. So the theory of 3 dots make a trend is valid.
on May 28, 2013Loved the background info on Mr. Phaneesh Murthy. Clearly a crazy smart guy. Sadly, the reactions in India have been so predictable — you know, just \'follow the herd\' of American Puritanical morality. Europeans have moved on but sadly Indians are unable to move beyond aping Americans. The reactions have been so crazily same in terms of vilifying Phaneesh Murthy that it\'s almost hilarious but this is a sad incident so hilarity is clearly not something which is called for here. I mean, is THIS the only SOLUTION that we can think of !?!? They had a relationship for a year or more, right? They were ADULTS, is not it? How long are we going to cling on to the linear narrative of the \'powerless female\' *preyed upon* by a \"predatory\" boss as even the article seems to imply? This is Fremont, California and not a B-class town in India. How old was she btw? Do people want or expect corporate CEOs or other executives in their 30s, 40s, and 50s to be \'virile\' like Manmohan Singh? Frankly, I think the reactions of folks to this incident will reveal a lot about them. The women might be uniformly against Phaneesh The Predator and I understand that. Indian women belonging to the professional working class anyhow have a crazily mixed up personality that combines both a heritage of doing Karva Chauth and watching some Hollywood movies starring George Clooney or Brad Pitt and so on ... The males\'s reactions will be more intriguing. I presume most males will severely and unequivocally condemn Phaneesh ... I mean, there\'s clearly no harm in taking the side of the majority. Those who realize that \"Wait a minute! This is not about \'sexual harassment\' but a relationship gone wrong ... as human relationships often and usually go wrong\" will probably keep quiet. So. Anyways, before \'critics\' pile on my comments, here\'s how I would have loved to see this pan out: Since nobody got raped in a company closet or bathroom or executive dining room (let along 10 or 100 such incidents), once the relationship got \'out of hand\' after the pregnancy as seems to have happened, a way should have been found to settle the matter between them! That process could have involved iGate\'s lawyers, Phaneesh and the lady\'s lawyers, whatever ... some settlement should have been worked out. Sure, this is the CEO. So, may be do things publicly because if you try to keep things private, then it may leak and then the damage may be more. Of course, as a side note, there SHOULD NOT ideally be damage from someone having sex with someone else. And finally let the Board decide what punishment to mete out to the CEO. May be it would have been enough punishment for Phaneesh to have to make a multi-million dollar pay to the female employee out of his salary or stocks or whatever. And then make all that public. Let him decide if he can continue in the company with that knowledge \'public.\' I mean, just look at the BOTTOM-LINE of this story: \"What? Oh, this guy had SEX with a female?? How sad, bad, and utterly mad! How can anyone have SEX with someone else? That too, a SUBORDINATE!\" Now, remember that, if you are the frigging CEO, most everyone in the company is a \'subordinate\' to you. And being a workaholic CEO, you probably spend 14 hours at the office and the rest of the 10 hours, your mind is essentially filled with thoughts about \'issues\' at the company. It\'s not like you can go for a drink to the bar in the evening daily or visit the dating websites ... Oh yes, yes, I can hear the howling —> \"He was MARRIED!\" Well, I do not consider that a factor. He was not DEAD yet. So, to continue the \'BOTTOM-LINE\' of this story: \"Therefore, let\'s fire, FIRE, FIRREEE him!! It\'s just a CEO! They\'re a dime a dozen! We\'ll find one more. After all, look at HP and the game of musical chairs that happened there before Meg Whitman. Look at the same thing at Yahoo before Marissa Mayer. We must, MUST make it clear — in this company, we SHALL NOT TOLERATE *mere* humans indulging in *predatory* practices such as having sex! No Sirreee! You are NOT humans ... you are RESOURCES.\" What a sorry state of affairs. Anyways, I will stop here. What I have said probably sounds \'sexist\' or \'misogynistic\' and worse to readers.
on May 28, 2013Why the author of the article is giving reference to Phanish\'s past glory? Why should anyone care about how good he is? Is the author trying to win hearts for Phanish? Wondering if Phanish stopped with two or are there many? I think many harrasment did not come to the surface.
on May 27, 2013The issue is the fiscal responsibility and doing it on the company time and resource. Everybody is equal in eyes of law in US. Reputational damage to company is enormous. No issues if Phaneesh divorced his wife and disclosed his new relationship. T If he is morally corrupt, what else corruption he is hiding. HP CEO was fired also for falsifying business expense. Same is true of Phaneesh in fact to greater extent.
on May 28, 2013This is very common in all Indian IT companies. Very morally and ethically challenged people.
on May 27, 2013You are generalizing the issue. Your arrogance is quite sad, that the morality and ethics of these few people alone is being questioned. We too saw many Lawyer-Client movies from Hollywood , just like you. The memories of Monica Lewensky is still fresh in the mind.
on May 27, 2013Virtue and Vice! Sexual Harassment? Or accpeted prostitution? Will the women keep quiet or accept the so called R A P E, if it is compensated? Murty is just one example of fall from grace, but how many Office affairs are unearthed like this? You should be double careful especially when you are at the helm of affairs.
on May 25, 2013It is the 3 media-reported case of sexual harrassment by ex-CEO Praneesh Murthy.Out of court settlements have already been done with Reka and Jennifer.High time that sexual harassment in the workplace be treated more seriously!
on May 24, 2013How much will the media milk this issue? Great traffic? Huh...
on May 24, 2013I cannot believe how sexist and morally blind this article is. Let\'s start with your tagline - \"How could a man as intelligent as Phaneesh Murthy end up making the same mistake twice?\" Seriously? Intelligence and sexual harassment are not related. One is a metric of your analytical acumen and the other is a crime. Being an intelligent person, or even a star at top institutes (like IIT and IIM) and companies does not in any way influence how you mistreat your female subordinates. Maybe the tagline should have been \"How could a man with a history of sexual harassment like Phaneesh Murthy been put in a position to repeat his crime again\". Honestly, Forbes, i am disgusted that you would even publish an article focusing on his academic and business laurels and positioning his crime as a surprising contradiction.
on May 24, 2013Thank you.
on May 30, 2013