We've already got one theory on why Microsoft CIO Stuart Scott was fired. He and a VP-level direct report both recently took "emergency family leave," says a tipster. But the family leave was a ruse, our tipster claims, meant to cover up the fact that the two were having an affair. According to Directions on Microsoft, an analyst firm which tracks the software giant's org chart, Scott had only one female VP reporting to him, and we have yet to determine whether she's still employed. But let's put the rumor of an affair aside. Compared to, say, Google, Microsoft is surprisingly Puritan about such matters. What does Scott's departure really tell us? That the CIO job at Microsoft, where Scott's chief responsibility was inflicting Microsoft's newest, buggiest software on his colleagues, is deadly boring. Boring enough to make a bit of intramural entertainment plausibly worth the risk of getting caught. Scott's successor will be Microsoft's fourth CIO in as many years.

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