David Colby used to be known for his position as the CFO of WellPoint Inc., a leader in the health insurance industry. These days, he's known for being a dirtbag who broke the hearts of a series of women that he met primarily through online dating sites. Despite that these activities had nothing to do with his work at WellPoint, Colby was fired as a result of these situations being revealed.



This is hardly the first time that a leading company has released head employees for non-work matters. While some of these have been as a result of their direct effect on the company (such as the Boeing employee fired for having an affair with someone he was superior to in the company) many have been cases like Colby's that didn't have anything to do with the business at all.



So should Colby really have been fired for his activities? Sure, perhaps he was a scumbag for mistreating the women that he met online. No one's denying that it was wrong for him to text one girlfriend that she should get an abortion while maintaining relationships with a dozen other women. But that doesn't reflect on his ability to do his job. There should be some line between the personal and the business life shouldn't there?



Newsweek has the full story on David Colby's situation included the sordid details of his mistreatment of the women he met online.



Question of the Day: Do you believe firing Colby was a reasonable course of action in this case?