BOI CEO Resigns

Just heard that Micheal Soden has resigned, because he infringed the BOI internet policy. Seems he accessed sites 'of an adult nature'. Unreal! And Tom Mulcahy has resigned from AerLingus... and with AIB still in the dock, and a former head of IL&P involved in the AIB dodgy tax practices.... does anyone else think we've flipped over into a parallel universe of silliness?

RTE have the Soden story here.

Sluice

I think I remember commenting on AAM at the time of Mulcahy's appointment to Aer Lingus that it was a little two-faced of the state to be grilling Mulcahy over AIB's extensive role in the DIRT scandal on one hand while appointing him to a senior role on a semi-state board on the other. I hate to say 'I told you so', but 'I told you so'. [Actually, I quite enjoy saying it].

Dignity

In fairness to the said CEO, if others in this state who set the rules followed his example and stepped down immediately, when they broke the rules, we as a public would have alot more confidence in the systems.

Soden removed himself from his position, where by his own admission, another staff member might have got a slap on the wrist (excuse pun!).

Instead we have the irritating debacles of fat cats, judiciary, politicians etc. acting as if there should be a golden carpet for them to depart on!

Re: Dignity

You may be giving Soden more credit than he deserves, given that his resignation came shortly after [broken link removed]. If he had the dignity you imply, he would have resigned before the press got a hint of it.

I wonder if the AIB tax enquiry findings had any connection to Roy Douglas's replacement by Gillian Bowler as Chairman of IL&P? If so, at least he had the sense to jump before it hit the press, unlike Mulcahy.

Re: Dignity

"If he had the dignity you imply, he would have resigned before the press got a hint of it."

The moral high ground is becoming increasingly rarefied. Is anybody seriously suggesting that after accessing the inappropriate web-site this guy should have (unprompted)seen the error of his ways and immediately tendered his resignation?

I think - at least I hope - that the basis for this resignation is not the adult material per se, but that the guy felt he couln't be seen to impose one standard on the footsoldiers, while applying a different standard to his own behaviour. Quite right too.

Re: Dignity

Actually I think it was more of a push than a jump.

Re: Dignity

And one of Soden's first initiatives was to remove the company cars from his underlings and move them to open plan offfices cos he reckoned they were too comfortable. What a blatant hypocrite!

Re: Dignity

My point, MOB, was the hypocracy of his resignation being precipitated by the press coverage/questions. I don't have particularly strong views on the moral issue of accessing adult sites. If it wasn't a resignation offence, then he should have had the guts to stand up to the press. If it was a resigning offence, then he should have resigned when he was caught by the internal staff. Either way, he lacked dignity & common sense.

To be honest, he should probably have been fired for stupidity.

Just as a matter of interest, is there anyone contributing to Askaboutmoney during working hours in contravention of their employer's internet policy?

Do you think that your employer would have the remotest chance of successfully defending an unfair dismissal case against you in the Labour Court?

In all these cases, proportionality should be the guide. Not every offence is a hanging offence.

It is wrong to contravene the Bank of Ireland's internet policy. He should have received a verbal warning about this in private like any other employee. And that should have been the end of it.

However, if the Bank has a policy of firing every employee for once-off abuse of the internet, then, of course, he was right to resign.

Brendan

proportionate punishment

I agree that this does not seem to me like a resigning issue. But I don't agree that a CEO should be treated like any other employee. Of he to whom much is given, much will be expected and all that. If I had the problem of dealing with this (unlikely in this lifetime!) I would probably have insisted on an apology to staff for applying a different standard to his own behaviour than he had done to theirs; and I might have suggested he forfeit the annual bonus (or make a substantial charitable donation).

ps Rainyday - you are right that he should not allow the shots to have been called by a newspaper (if this is what happened). I am sick and tired of the "scalp hunting" mentality which passes for investigative journalism in this country (and even more so in the UK). This time, at last, I am acting: I have bought the SBP without fail for the past 3-4 years or so. Never again.

Re: proportionate punishment

Just as a matter of interest, is there anyone contributing to Askaboutmoney during working hours in contravention of their employer's internet policy?

Do you think that your employer would have the remotest chance of successfully defending an unfair dismissal case against you in the Labour Court?

Click to expand...

I suspect a great many contributors post during working hours. I also believe that their employers should easily be able to defend an unfair dismissal case. Such employees are stealing time and resources from their employers. (regardless of if it being in contravention of any policies)

I can't see how people can clock up thousands of posts on bulletin boards (not just AAB) and still claim to be offering 100% in their jobs.

We recently hired someone to do some work and we went out of our way to ensure that there would be no internet access - not even email.

Re: proportionate punishment

I suspect a great many contributors post during working hours

Do what in where now? :b

Re: proportionate punishment

The odd thing is that Mr. Soden could surely have defended his use of adult sites on the basis of "necessary research". Weren't BoI involved in a controversy a few months ago because they provided financial backing to a UK publisher of "adult material". If BoI (or any other bank) are financing deals in a particular ebusiness sector, I would be more worried if the bosses are not keeping an eye on online developments within that sector.

I can't help thinking that BOI and/or Mr. Soden used this "embarrassment" as an excuse for him to stand down. After all BOI has not exactly been in sparkling form during his short tenure.

soden

I too have bought the SBP for the last 3-4 years and I also thought the story yesterday was cheap and dirty for an SBP front page.
However, that said, did it say anywhere that the I.T. dept. in the bank actually approached him in the first place so he had the option of resigning? My reading of it was that the SBP found out about the indiscretion before he did (obviously he knew about it anyway but you get my point). If thats true and someone in the bank had it in for Soden by releasing the story, or just got a few quid for the details, then we may be being a bit preemptive by accusing Soden of only jumping when the SBP went to him.
I too dont have a strong view on people accessing adult sites, each to their own, and as was asked earlier should each offence be a hanging offence? we'd all be out if that was the case. How many people can hold their hands up to not breaking their companys web policy?
Not many, thats for sure.

What was he really up to?

According to Sunday Times - the sites contained scantily clad women- what, is that all?

Maybe so. This was a US Escort Agency and Mr S just happened to be due to go to the US

Let's get real - Mr S resigned because it WAS a resigning matter, not the little bit of harmless "curiosity killed the cat" he now wants us to swallow.

BoI Share price up 3%

There must be something a bit deflating when your resignation causes your company to increase in value by €300 Million.

BoI Share price up 3%

> You may be giving Soden more credit than he deserves, given that his resignation came shortly after a query from the Sunday Business Post. If he had the dignity you imply, he would have resigned before the press got a hint of it.

Actually the SBPost claim to have exclusively blown the lid on this last Thursday was disputed in other reports yesterday which claimed that the issue came to light as a result of an internal AIB internet usage audit/investigation on WEDNESDAY. As such, it would seem that Soden, once faced with the evidence of this audit/investigation, faced up to the consequences implied by the AIB internet usage rules and resigned. Whether people see this act, or Soden's public announcement of the specific reasons for his resignation (which I presume he and the bank could have witheld and simply used the usual "personal reasons" excuse?) as deserving credit or not is really up to them. At least, for once, the rules seem to have been applied equally/consistently regardless of how senior a position the individual held which personally see as a positive thing.

BoI Share price up 3%

> At least, for once, the rules seem to have been applied equally/consistently regardless of how senior a position the individual held

Actually, just re-reading Brendan's comments above this may or may not have been the case. Without knowing the details of the BOI internet usage policies (e.g. is browsing porn something that merits a verbal or written warning or is it perhaps gross misconduct which merits automatic dismissal?) I guess we can't say whether or not the rules, as they would apply to others, applied in this case. Of course a lower rung officer of the bank in the same case might have been quietly terminated or resigned without the public embarassment or the need for public disclosure of the details of the incident.

The related issues of (a) the legality of internet (non child/underage) porn access in Ireland and (b) breaches of workplace internet usage policies and the disciplinary measures arising are interesting and probably worth discussing in isolation from this particular incident.

The details of (a) have always been hazy to me in spite of trying to get to the bottom (oooh-er Matron) of it over the years. I know that individual ISPs have their own AUPs (acceptable usage policies) which may or may not preclude access to (or in some cases "transmission" - not sure if that specifically means "publication" as opposed to viewing?) porn (again - something that is difficult to define unambiguously) or "unacceptable" material while others have few or no restrictions on the type of content that subscribers can access. Apart from that I was always very unclear on the legal aspects of this matter - e.g. is access to (adult) internet porn necessarily legal or could such activity fall foul of any laws specifically or generally governing this area? Anyway, perhaps something for a new and separate topic...

Re: BoI Share price up 3%

I suspect that most mainstream internet porn would be regarded as obscene and it would be illegal to import such material.

Skynews displayed 'scantily clad' women a couple of weeks ago with an article on a new type of backless swimwear. Would it have been a sackable offence to have viewed that page?

Maybe a criminal investigation is in order.