An office romance can lead to many things: true love, a hot date, disapproving colleagues. It doesn’t usually lead to the sack.

Last week in a move that sent a shudder down the spines of executives, an office affair claimed the career of Harry Stonecipher, one of the world’s most respected bosses — hoist with his own petard after breaching the high ethical standards he demanded of his staff.

The 68-year-old president and chief executive of Boeing was forced out of office over an affair with a company vice- president, Debra Peabody.

Married and a grandfather, Stonecipher began his relationship with his unmarried colleague in January at the company’s annual retreat in Palm Desert, California. Stonecipher’s marriage had been in trouble for some time and he was living away from his wife.

Peabody, 48, works in Boeing’s Washington office. A Boeing career woman who once worked in London as sales director for the company’s commercial aeroplane unit, she manages office operations for Boeing’s chief political lobbyist, Rudy deLeon.

With Stonecipher spending much of his time in Boeing’s Seattle head office, on the other side of the country, much of their long-distance romance was carried out by e-mail. It proved their undoing. Their x-rated messages, sent on Boeing’s internal system, were intercepted by technology more typically used to prevent pornography being sent round the office.

Stonecipher was confronted by his board with what is being described as “a packet” of information including print-outs of the e-mails. He made no attempt to cover up his indiscretion and Peabody co-operated fully with Boeing’s inquiry. She appears to be keeping her job.

So far the messages remain private but e-mails have a habit of leaking, as many people have learnt to their cost.

The scandal has shaken corporate America, sparking a debate about the rights of companies to interfere in the private morals of executives.

“Had he been an Airbus executive, the French would have given him a raise,” The Wall Street Journal editorialised.

This is not the first time the office affairs of an American titan have made the international news. Usually the relationships are treated as a joke, material for New Yorker cartoons and late-night comedy shows.

This time it’s serious, however. America’s much trumpeted new moral values seem to have made their way into the boardroom. Boeing’s murky recent past made it particularly sensitive to the shift in corporate ethics.

STONECIPHER built his own scaffold. Boeing had recently been hit by a wave of ethical and financial scandals and the widely admired executive had been brought out of retirement specifically to deal with those issues.

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