Watch Your Mouth: Allstate Executive Fired for Talking Trash about Boss

No one has a perfect boss. You might feel your boss is incompetent or you might at any given time disagree strongly with a decision your boss has made. Some of us bite our tongues, confide and rant with a fellow co-worker who sympathizes, or take the chance of respectfully presenting your boss/employer with valid reasons behind the disagreement. But it is not smart to vulgarly rant about a boss in a bar, in front of many executives/co-workers, in the midst of a company event. The result could be you’re fired.  “Loose Lips Trip Up Good Hands Executive” by Erik Holm and Joann S. Lublin of WSJ.com report that Joseph Lacher, formerly of Allstate, was fired from the insurer for committing this ultimate workplace indiscretion.

Lacher was president of Allstate home and auto insurance units and on July 18 the company surprisingly reported his exit. Those familiar with the company were aware that Thomas J. Wilson, the chief executive, was not pleased with Lacher’s performance. But the article is reporting “several people familiar with the situation” are divulging that Lacher was fired for referring to his boss in a vulgar manner. The incident:

“[Lacher] was having drinks with some of Allstate’s top-selling insurance agents as part of a company event called the Leaders Forum…earlier in the day… Messrs. Lacher and Wilson unveiled plans to shrink Allstate’s sales force and change the way the insurer calculates commission.

Some agents were angry about the changes… Mr. Wilson, who wasn’t at the bar, was a popular target.

Then came the two words that helped end Mr. Lacher’s 20-month career at Allstate: ‘f—cking a—‘”

PricewaterhouseCoopers Colleagues Rating New Woman Hires

Accounting Firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) of Dublin had a very interesting tradition for new women hires. According to “Accountants Caught in E-mail Chain Rating Female Employees” by Mary Plummer, a few junior male staffers would email a top 10 list of the women based on their attractiveness and it included their photos. This email was then forwarded to other men in the company. The women on the list were entry-level employees.

PWC found out about the emails due to the story leak in an Irish newspaper. Unfortunately, for the women mentioned in the emails, their photos have been published in newspapers throughout Great Britain and Ireland.

The response from PWC is from spokeswoman Johanna Dehaene:

"We're taking this extremely seriously at the highest level of the firm… We obviously regret this has happened…the impact has been compounded by the printing of the photographs”… [Dehaene] adding that the company has met with the women several times. "The focus here at PricewaterhouseCoopers is on supporting the women."

This incident brings about two important topics: work environment and privacy.