Valleywag leads the pack, as always, wondering what the company means when it says he was fired “for violation of company policies”. They also suggest that Microsoft fired him while he was traveling to his sister’s funeral, in order to further embarrass him. Most of the speculation is in the direction of him being fired for cheating, or rather having an affair with an employee of his.

Valleywag talks about another firing at the beginning of the year, that of Martin Taylor, Steve Ballmer’s right hand man. Apparently the rumor mill has been spinning on that one, with company insiders saying Taylor was given the boot for charging the company for hotel rooms he charged the company for, rooms he used for weekend getaways as part of an affair with a coworker.

Seems to be becoming a pattern, or perhaps not. People are always having office romances, and some people are always cheating on their wives (just read InsideGoogle). Microsoft is just standing up and being willing to fire these people, no matter how important they are to the company. You’ve got to respect that, applying company policies to everyone no matter their pay grade, though having to hire a fourth new CIO in four years must be getting tiring.

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Mary Jo Foley posted a compact statement from Microsoft regarding Scott’s firing: “We can confirm that Stuart Scott was terminated after an investigation for violation of company policies , and have no further information to share.”

Given the dramatically quick nature of Scott’s dismissal, certain speculation has been raised. Valleywag cited a tipster’s claim that Scott and a female VP reporting to him both took emergency family leave at the same time, suggesting an affair was taking place.

Valleywag also recalled the departure of Martin Taylor, a Microsoft executive who was out of the company a day after the debut of Windows Live Messenger, which he had a role in promoting.

Owen Wilson at Valleywag picked up on a tip about Taylor, which claimed he not only enjoyed an affair with a co-worker, but charged his weekend hotel trysts back to the company.

Yet lengthy delays in getting the Vista operating system to market, and Microsoft’s need to acquiesce to OEM demands that they be allowed to continue offering Windows XP to customers, hasn’t resulted in anyone being fired in the lofty peaks of the corporate apparatus.