A Schooling in Leadership Today at the Produce warehouse in Andover, Felicia and Gooch held two meetings where Arthur Ts special June bonuses were handed out. They started each meeting with a fifteen minute address where they basically told everyone the same basic message that was in the conference call last week. What followed at each meeting showed that our company has leaders all over the place. Questions were fired at them from too many voices to count for almost an hour at each meeting. Their answers to many of the pointed questions were at best vague and at least one untruth. We can only imagine how difficult it must have been for them to twice stand before a room full of the best people that this industry has to offer and try to speak with any type of authority. They had a chance this morning to step up and gain an ounce of legitimacy and trust in the eyes of our leadership but instead they fell flat on their faces and damaged their already crippled reputations even further. While the fact that our leaders stood up and made us all proud is something to feel good about, the lies and deferrals given by the Co-CEOs are something to be very concerned about. According to a couple of sources, when asked about whether they had any designs on changing any part of our business model, bonus structure or compensation they replied that they had no intention of making any changes. Rather than taking a stand and saying no, they left plenty of wiggle room for themselves. When pressed once again about the debacle over at Indian Ridge last week, they lied again by saying that they solved the problem there, not understanding that part of the problem was the fact that they took no consideration of the livelihoods of each associate there who was at risk and allowed the board to play roulette with these people. Several asked whether they knew of or had any involvement with any plans to sell assets of the company or the company itself, they claimed to have no knowledge of this and that these were questions better left for the board. They were asked about their contracts and they told us that they each have a three year contract that does not include any bonus structure in it. We find this hard to believe especially with their over the top lust for getting the new stores open as soon as possible. They also were asked if a golden parachute awaits them, like Felicias $17m she got for driving Albertsons into the ground, and they said there was not one in place here. Another comment made by them shows that they either outright lied, were ignorant of the facts or that they are being dealt with dishonestly by the Board. It was stated that Bill Shea is now a trustee of the Profit Sharing Plan. We have found out that Mr. Shea was nominated for and voted to the post, but he was never asked if he wanted it, has not yet accepted it and may not accept it. As it stands he is not a trustee. For F&G to not know this, while they themselves are plan administrators, shows extreme ignorance of a very important role which affects each of us in the plan. If they did know this, which as administrators is likely, then they are LYING to us again! They know that Mr. Shea is a man who fights for us and that our minds would be at ease with the knowledge that he is looking after our money. Whatever the reason, telling us that he is a trustee when he is not is unacceptable. One meeting, one bald faced lie. Does anyone ever remember ATD lying to us? They also issued a veiled threat to all in the room that theyd better start accepting promotions when offered to them or else they would have to start hiring people from the outside. Now thats inspiring leadership right there! They dont get it and it is becoming crystal clear that they think we dont get it. They truly believe that they can put a Wall Street philosophy into play at our company and that they have no intention of trying to understand what makes us so special. They are short term CEOs who will do whatever is necessary to get the job done and then get the hell out of town. We wrote earlier this week that Resistance is our new role in all of this. Today, our leaders showed us a textbook example of how this can be done. Only eight days after the top leadership of our company was wiped out they stood face to face with F&G and spoke up for what they believe. They were all taught well by ATD, BM and Rock and today they put their lessons to work. They wont back down and threats will not deter them. We can look to them for guidance on how to fight and we can be proud of the schooling they gave to F&G today. Store associates can be very proud of their Store Directors for asking the right questions and letting the new regime in town know this is not going to be as easy as other companies they have pillaged. They may have separated the company management into two groups but today we stood as ONE together.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 22:02:22 +0000