Photo: TV3 News.co.nz

Following the media coverage resulting from one of New Zealand’s most high-profile CEOs has been like watching a train crash in slow motion.

The fact that he apparently believes women take more sick leave because of ‘monthly sick problems’ is one thing. It’s quite another that he said this in his role as Chief Executive of the Employer and Manufacturers Association (Northern).

Reputation rules and if the CEO states he’s simply expressing the views of many of its members we can take as read that that’s the case. No wonder, then, that many of those members were both aghast and disturbed at his comments, as were members of his board who scrambled to distance itself from Thompson’s comments.

Now there are numerous examples of leaders of organisations who have made untrue, inappropriate or simply strange comments who haven’t been vilified he way Thompson has. So what is it about him that’s keeping the story running and leaving Twitter and Facebook commentators feasting on it? Read the rest of this entry »