arlier in 2002, Shaw’s Supermarkets in Rhode Island discovered over $40 million of inventory losses. That fact alone just about boggles the mind. You have to work hard or be creatively stupid to miss $40 million in inventory.
But the lunacy was just beginning.
In reaction, Shaw’s issued a letter to all employees telling them that they were liable to be searched at any time and that refusing to be searched would constitute grounds for dismissal.
“Where are the human resources people,” I asked my wife, “who should be advising the CEO that this is madness? How does anyone believe that employees could make off with $40 million?! They’d have to be using dump trucks and cranes 24 hours a day!”
Then we learned that the vice president of human resources (along with the vice president of operations) had signed the letter! The next day, after 24 hours of execrable public relations and lead stories on every news show, the CEO apologized, called the letter unauthorized, and explained that he had never been told about it and would have never agreed to it.
Everyone went back to work. Unfortunately, that included the vice president of human resources.
Just when you think it’s safe to go back in the HR water—After all, aren’t Texaco, and Astra, and other debacles safely behind us?—we find still another example of HR buckling under to knee-jerk reactions of, well, jerks. How does one accuse hundreds or thousands of employees of dishonest behavior without a shred of evidence (for all anyone really knows, the inventory loss is a massive accounting error—calling Arthur Andersen, calling Arthur Andersen…) and not foreseeing the public outrage?
HR should neither be a blind employee advocate nor a shill of management. But is it too much to ask it to be ethical and rational? You can’t stand up if you’re constantly buckling under.


© Alan Weiss 2002 All rights reserved.


Alan Weiss, Ph.D., CMC is the author of 20 books, including the seminal Million Dollar Consulting, revised for 2002 (McGraw-Hill) and his newest, The Ultimate Consultant Series, seven books forming a consulting library (Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer). You can reach him at Alan@summitconsulting.com. Visit his web site, http://www.summitconsulting.com to subscribe to his free monthly newsletter, Balancing Act: Blending Life, Work, and Relationships.