Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

The battle between Wal-Mart (WMT) and fired senior vice-president of marketing communications, Julie Roehm, has escalated to another level. Evidently when Roehm filed a lawsuit claiming Wal-Mart owed her money, it got Wal-Mart's dander up and they're starting to talk a little more about the situation.

Wal-Mart representative Mona Williams is quoted in New York magazine as saying "Julie Roehm didn't tell the truth about the inappropriate relationship with one of her subordinates. Despite these denials, Wal-Mart now has irrefutable and admissible evidence of the relationship. I would not tell you this if we didn't know it was true."

As in many companies, Wal-Mart has a policy in place that forbids romantic relationships between employees.

In reference to the alleged inappropriate relationship between Roehm and Sean Womack, Williams stated that an investigation began when complaints from someone who worked for Roehm were brought forth.

Other issues brought forth have been Roehm accepting gifts from agencies and talking about employment for Womack at DraftFCB, the agency that originally won the contract.

Roehm said that she knows what the evidence is, personal e-mail exchanged outside of the Wal-Mart system, which she says isn't "evidence of an affair, it's irrefutable evidence that we're really good friends."

While all of this is interesting, it does bring up the management issues we talk about here all the time, and that is that hiring people in management needs to be done in a way that lines up both sides with the values of the company. Even last post we talked about this very thing.

It's one of the reasons hiring from within and knowing exactly what you're getting is a huge advantage. Whatever the truth is in all of this, it was a poor decision on both parties to enter into working together in the first place. Roehm knew what Wal-Mart represented and was, she should have seen that this would never work for her. Wal-Mart also had seen Roehm and some of her past work and initiatives as well, and also should have known that this just wasn't going to be a fit.

I do wonder about Roehm though, in if she was smart to continue in this pursuit. If she comes out on the wrong end of this, it will devastate her future. Who would hire her? Of course if she's telling the truth, that should come out as well.

One other thought that is part of this is Roehm's skill at marketing herself. Is it possible that she doesn't care if these things are true or not, or whether she wins or loses? Is there a celebrity element she's trying to attain that she is using this situation to enhance? Time will tell. From that way of looking at it she may be found to be brilliant.

For now she's trying to make herself look like the victim of the corporate behemoth. But with so many players in the game, it won't be easy to hide what really happened if it goes into a publicly fought lawsuit; which is where it seems headed.