Probably unrelated, but all is obviously not well in Wal-Mart-Land. The VP of Operations is generally the guy in charge of, well, operating -- making sure things happen in the stores and such.
Quote:
Wal-Mart fires several executives for flouting company rules
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
(12-15) 06:51 PST BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) --
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. confirmed Wednesday that it fired several executives but would not detail the reason.
"Three company officers were terminated for failing to follow internal company rules," spokeswoman Mona Williams said. Four other workers who were not at the executive level were also terminated for failing to follow Wal-Mart rules, she said.
The terminations occurred over the past several days, Williams said.
"At this time we don't anticipate any more terminations related to this," Williams said.
Citing privacy issues, she would not name the employees or be more specific about the reasons they were fired.
The Benton County Daily Record newspaper reported in Wednesday's edition that among those let go was Jim Haworth, executive vice president of operations for the Wal-Mart division.
Williams said the firings were unrelated to the retirement announcement last week of company vice chairman Tom Coughlin. Williams also said, responding to a question, that the firings were "not the result of a criminal investigation." Coughlin's responsibilities included overseeing Wal-Mart and Sam's Club warehouse stores.
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Wal-mart has an electronic timesheet application for employees, and there've been lawsuits and firings over first-level managers removing hours from employees records (making them work for free) to meet their cost/efficiency targets. Wal-mart claimed that top management knew nothing about this. Maybe it did....