The Julie Roehm vs. Wal-Mart saga is back in the trade press
Advertising Age - Roehm: Wal-Mart Conducting 'Smear Campaign' :
Complaining of being outmanned by Wal-Mart's army of “private investigators, computer hackers, ex-CIA operatives, former FBI men and an army of public-relations operatives,” Julie Roehm is charging her former employer with orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her.Ms. Roehm, who sued the retailer after she was dismissed last year, issued a press release today, just over a week after Wal-Mart filed its own counterclaim. In her statement, Ms. Roehm denied the substance of that lawsuit, which alleges that she had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate and with an ad agency that led to her sacking.
Wal-Mart's 28-page complaint references e-mails between Ms. Roehm and former VP-Communications Architecture Sean Womack, who was fired along with her, that the company says is evidence of a romantic affair, something that's forbidden by Wal-Mart's ethical code. In her statement, Ms. Roehm, whose lawsuit continues, called the use of e-mail “selective.”
“When you patch together pieces of messages sent at different times, you can create pretty much any story you want,” she wrote. “As in other cases, Wal-Mart has attacked the victim.”
...
Ms. Roehm, who was hired from Chrysler Group to help shake up Wal-Mart's staid marketing approach early last year, suggested that her dismissal may be due to sexism at Wal-Mart. “Perhaps some did not like following or taking the advice of a woman.”
She continued, “Under cover of a counterclaim, Wal-Mart is insinuating things about my personal life and pretending I violated some code of ethics with advertisers, all to distract from the reality that it didn't want my form of progressive marketing.”
There is undoubtedly a large portion of truth to her assertion of sexism. But why would she take the job in the first place? Sounds like a nightmare assignment.
backstory:
Exit Roehm Left
Technorati Tags: Business, surveillance, Wal-Mart
