Here we go again. It’s not just another guy with a bad goatee…Scott Thompson, CEO at Yahoo, former president of Pay Pal/eBay, has been exposed for falsely inflating his resume.
In a series of articles in Business Insider,this mistake is described in detail. Also, reportedly, Yahoo employees are very upset and angry at Thompson. This is, at a minimum, ironic. If Yahoo employees fit national averages, about 25% of them probably lied on their resumes too. But, folks like to be righteous, and they absolutely love to be self-righteous. It’s a contest to see who can throw the first stone, the hardest. In this age of being able to find out everything about everybody, exposing people has become a blood sport.
Lying on your resume is a stupid thing to do. So is lying on your profile in Facebook (hmmm—check that one out). If you do it, you’re a jerk, but you are still a member of the human race, and last I heard we honored the principle of forgiveness.
I’ve noticed this principle under durress regarding two other individuals lately—
Michael Vick and Joe Paterno. When it comes to being kind to animals and not raping young boys, it’s too easy to jump down on the side of goodness and berate and dishonor those who made mistakes. Too many people seem to be frustrated judges, and they can’t wait to get all ‘holier-than-thou’ on people whose stupidity gets exposed. I guess they are perfect and it frustrates them living with the rest of us slobs.
Look….The guy lied on his resume…That’s cheating and being dishonest. He should be fired, but let’s tone down the moral outrage. Until we’ve solved the really serious injustices and cruelties that occur daily in this country, let’s stop making such public victims out of people who do stupid, self-defeating things… Live and let live.