this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024
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[–] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 193 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Nothing but a scapegoat if they replace him with another accountant instead of an engineer.

[–] 5C5C5C@programming.dev 101 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

By all credible accounts the systemic issues at Boeing predate this CEO by probably 2 decades. Dave Calhoun seems to specialize in "troubled companies", i.e. he has never been anything more than a professional scape goat.

Edit: I didn't do enough research, he hasn't really been CEO at many places, just upper positions like director and board member. Still, the companies he specializes in seem to be the ones with reputations to cannibalize for money by cutting quality and screwing consumers, like GE.

[–] db2@lemmy.world 60 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If it comes with golden parachutes it's all but guaranteed he doesn't care.

[–] Zron@lemmy.world 39 points 8 months ago

If I got millions of dollars every time a company went down in flames around me, I’d carry around a can of gas and matches.

He was CEO, he could have implemented policies to alleviate these issues. Instead he kept the status quo.

He belongs in jail, not another board room.

[–] fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world 28 points 8 months ago (1 children)

He was responsible for the figurative nosedive my boss' previous company did. Now he's responsible for the literal nosedive of Boeing.

This man is a professional company ruiner, not just a scape goat.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 12 points 8 months ago

Calhoun's MCAS might have been set incorrectly 👀

[–] turkishdelight@lemmy.ml 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Didn't he hold senior positions in Boeing much longer than he has been CEO?

[–] 5C5C5C@programming.dev 7 points 8 months ago

You're right, he was there since 2009, so he has probably been helping to design the cannibalization, but it certainly didn't begin with him.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't matter if the CEO was an engineer or not in a previous life. The job of a CEO doesn't change and he did exactly what he was supposed to do: made shortsighted decisions that maximised profit and took the fall for it when the short-sightedness of those decisions blew up in their faces.

[–] wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 61 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Until the merger, Boeing was engineer-driven. They were well known for safety first and design over cost.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/business/boeing-history-of-problems/index.html

There are hundreds of articles on this topic and you rant without knowing the topic.

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[–] wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

They need to get back to the engineering mindset. This is why I think CEO bonuses on things like EPS are BS. It should be tied to things like engineering, safety, etc.

[–] jkrtn@lemmy.ml 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It should be something that must be returned if there's a severe fuckup within five years or something. Also they shouldn't be getting bonuses, they are already massively overpaid.

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[–] pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 10 points 8 months ago

I think they're more in a "hire a hit man to kill whistleblowers" mindset. Not the sort to suddenly turn about and become engineering do-gooders.

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 118 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Don’t let the door hit you on the—oh shit, the door!

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 23 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

In ~~Soviet Russia~~ America, the door hits you on it’s way out.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

No, not that door- the one from your shitty plane flying overhead.

[–] simplejack@lemmy.world 89 points 8 months ago (1 children)

So what about his seat on the board and what about the Director of the board, Bradway?

At the end of the day, it’s the board that’s signing off on the high level strategy. They need to be held accountable too. The CEO isn’t the top of the pyramid. The board is.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 34 points 8 months ago

Thank you! Folks around here are always baggin' on CEOs like they're the top dogs. Nope. The Board often orders them to do stupid shit, and sometimes they're brought on to do stupid shit. Hence the golden parachute thing. Damn straight I want paid if you fire me for doing what I was told.

[–] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 71 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Highly recommend the book ‘Flying Blind’ by Peter Robison on Boeing and the decline of its safety culture after the merger with McDonnell Douglas. That’s when the “business” types who ran the former company into the ground took over both and we see the same results here.

Before the merger, the engineers were in charge and safety was taken seriously. Now, it’s more about stock, etc.

[–] applebusch@lemmy.world 34 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Long ago the four nations lived in harmony. But everything changed when the business nation attacked. Only the regulations could stop them, but when the world needed them most, they vanished.

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[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I feel like I hear this story repeated over and over and over and over and over.... everywhere.

At what point will we stop letting the business types degrade our human civilization for their egoistic short-term gains?

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[–] Jode@midwest.social 62 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Are we all forgetting that Boeing most likely had a witness testifying them executed in a parking lot a few weeks ago?

[–] MyNamesNotRobert@lemmynsfw.com 24 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

John Barnett didn't kill himself and they're doing a damn good job of sweeping it under the rug. It barely got mentioned in by any mainstream news outlets. Even Epstien got more media coverage than this.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 11 points 8 months ago

You a word, there.

[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 42 points 8 months ago (4 children)

I wonder what his golden handshake (parachute? What's the difference?) is, for screwing things up so badly?

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 34 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Golden handshake is coming in, golden handcuffs to keep you there, and golden parachute for your exit.

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 17 points 8 months ago (2 children)

One golden anything please

[–] gothic_lemons@lemmy.world 31 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Best I can do is a golden shower

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 7 points 8 months ago

Jeez, I just can't win in this timeline

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[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago

He’s gonna need a parachute if he flies home on one of his planes.

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[–] Binthinkin@kbin.social 42 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (10 children)

That’s not enough. We want investigations that bring consequences.

Edit: the people who are commenting below about how “we have no control” etc etc, I just want to say, “Shut the fuck up.” Nobody wants you around anymore. Just because YOU have been a weak POS your entire life spouting off weak, sad bullshit trying to divert REAL change doesn’t mean that the rest of the country is like you. Go back to your holes because I promise if you don’t and you keep acting up, we will put you there in finality. The public isn’t stupid, and they aren’t weak. It’s scumbags within the wealth class that are protected by losers like you all naysayers and class traitors who try to make it seem that way. Trump and Biden is a symptom of class traitors turning on the public, not a show of force by the elites. Best recognize.

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[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 32 points 8 months ago

Cool. Now arrest him for criminal negligence.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How many millions fat will his golden parachute be for sending hundreds of passengers to death?

[–] Seaguy05@lemmy.world 17 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

15 million in stocks that vest in 3 years plus his 1.4 million in base salary plus plus his 22 million in stock, which has admittedly taken a beating as of late.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Calhoun

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 18 points 8 months ago

Nice payout for a complete failure on the job.

[–] notannpc@lemmy.world 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The shareholders get their fall guy, cool, but what about the entire leaderships criminal negligence? Because you can’t convince me that the CEO was single-handedly making the call to cut corners.

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[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Just going to state the obvious here: Boards of directors of large public company should have a % of the board elected by company workers and another % appointed by elected politicians. The problem here is corporate boards entirely run by investors.

[–] BeautifulMind@lemmy.world 19 points 8 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

When you have financial engineers overriding the decisions of mechanical engineers, you get crashy airplanes and eventually, caught up murdering people that might talk to investigators in order to defend those juicy profits

...sort of like how when administrators and insurance folk and lawyers and judges override the decisions of doctors and nurses, you end up with highly profitable hospitals and people dying for it

...all a bit like when the bean counters run your software company, layoffs designed to boost stock price by showing investors 'fiscal discipline' leaves your engineering teams shorthanded and forces them to de-prioritize bug fixes and dealing with technical debt and rigorous testing and you end up shipping lots of bugs when you release your product

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 9 points 8 months ago

Don't blame accountants. They don't make any decisions, and they don't have the technical expertise to know what is dangerous.

The CEO is a good start. I bet the COO and head of engineering are also at fault. People signed off on these planes without doing the required installation of the door. If it's a systemic issue, the quality control team is to blame.

Aviation is a regulated industry, right? I expect the FAA to get to the bottom, if not lawsuits.

[–] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Not good enough, I want more than just a change of leadership. I want federal oversight at every Boeing Facility. I want the FAA to have a new office funded by Washington to scrutinize this company. I want Boeing Employees purged from the FAA.

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[–] knova@infosec.pub 14 points 8 months ago

Culture change takes a while; I feel like even if they replaced everyone at the top with safety minded engineers to run the company, it would be some time before they dig themselves out of the hole they created for themselves.

[–] Haagel@lemmings.world 12 points 8 months ago

Probably stepping down to sit on the board instead.

[–] SankaraStone@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

He should required to be up there to answer questions from congress and the Feds.

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[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 8 points 8 months ago

"I'm gonna step down because I failed this clown car of a company...btw i'm keeping my golden parachute"

[–] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Bring back the dude who married his first cousin!

[–] SamsonSeinfelder@feddit.de 7 points 8 months ago

Rudy Giuliani?

I’m just flabbergasted it took this long. It’s COMICALLY obvious that this is the result of a decades-long legacy of technical leadership failures and safety-incompatible profit fixation.

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