Company's Hidden Secret is Class Action in the Making - werkgeversreview Executive bij Safeway

Our reputation among shoppers will plummet once the news of these incidents is published across industry specifc trades and general information outlets like WSJ and cable news. Thus far the company is either unaware or unwilling to address the most significant driver of value per share fallout since our IPO. Do you know what's happening, Susan? More than 10 years in various roles with Albertsons-Safeway, I have witnessed the company evolve from privately held to publicly traded, navigate complexity during Covid, post pandemic shifts in strategy, the multi-year process of potentially being acquired, and the indoctrination of new senior leadership as we refine our identity in 2025. The Board selected and tasked our outgoing CEO with one goal - Successfully complete a sale of the business to a competitor so that large institutional investors had more options. The CEO was unsuccessful when measured by this objective but was a thoughtful leader overall, capable of driving change in a historically male dominated org with fractured decision making and goals spread across territories. A decentralized company of this size ultimately drived decision making specific to only their slice of the pie versus positive contribution and problem solving across the broader business as a means to becoming a better company overall. The fact that we have yet to aggragate and unlock unified decision making is a testament to decades long undercurrents of leadership apathy and self-protectionism which stifles innovation and renders the company paralyzed. Top teir mass merchants leading across categories find new ways to challenge themselves and meet the needs of rapidly changing consumer profiles. We have not proven this to be a philosophy and execution strategy worthy of deployment. I use the term "male dominated" because of its significance and role in a real-time problem reflective of the outgoing CEO's worst hiring decision - that of his close friend and current EVP, Chief Merchandising & Digital Officer. It's understood that new CSuite leadership will leverage those among their inner-circle from previous roles as leaders with whom to work closely as they manage newly inherited, often complex tasks in their new org. Commonly the selection and placement of such leadership personnel drives a positive outcome for the business, as it benefits from obtaining top talent it couldn't otherwise recruit or didn't realize it needed from the standpoint of gaps in knowledge, leadership aptitude, or market position. However, the EVP referenced has set the company back decades, particularly as the US' top grocery retailers emphasize diversity of talent and thinking, counter to the outdated reality recognized widely from the 1960s through early 2000s, whereby the grocery industry was historically male-led and often seen as lacking in an understanding of gender bias. I am a male with unqiue exposure to this type of unethical, now characterized as illegal, discrimination. This EVP personifies both the old and new stigma associated with manipulation, bullying, targeting, and wide-spread illicit senior leadership activity that, by the nature of his role, has impacted women across internal groups and now exists within every US corporate region. His leadership pedagogy is rooted in ego which drives a disorted perception of his value and contribution as one of the top 3 most influential executives within the organization. Over the last 24 months, he has made statements that have been recorded and screen-shot about female leaders working across teams he ultimately manages which include "she's a woman and her attitude reflects it," "she's overly emotional and men don't have that issue," and beyond. His racial bias has also been documented and, allegely, that documentation now resides with one the US' top employee-rights litigation firms. This includes statements and documentation indicating that his racial bias is not simply unfortunate sentiment, but is also tied to action via awarded promotions, salary increases, and org design aligned with his stated position around Indian men being his preferred cross section of leadership talent with which to work, recruit, and hire. As stated, I am a man who's witnessed some of this first-hand. This EVP often influences participation, or lack thereof, in leadership meeting attendance that's driven by his racial and gender bias. If he feels threatened by a woman's strength in her field of work, he will assign that work to inferior counterparts within the business whose work product is inferior, but aligns more closely with a business narrative he seeks to drive or outcome he wishes to make reality. The industry leading women within this organization appear to have had enough with this EVP. The notion of one of the nation's top employee-side law firms working with the company's female leaders to address this widespread issue brings merit to their claims. I hope that the incoming CEO, as a woman who has likely witnessed these unlawful bias in instances spanning several decades in the industry, takes immediate action. The women this EVP has impacted, be it ensuring they are not promoted despite exemplary performance, pay scales skewing heavily in favor of inequitable increases for less deserving male counterparts, and the impact this has had on other senior leaders driven by their own self-protectionism who have made decisions as means to pandering to the EVPs sad management philosophy, deserves to see the light of day and remuneration must be sought for them. As a woman, the new CEO can drive this action. The Board can support it. HR is an achilles heal, completelty inept, which requires a full overhaul of that org. Most influential though, even moreso than news media outlets covering this senior leadership scandal once documents are made formal in filings, are the female shoppers of Albertsons Safeway speaking out in support of the female leaders contributing to the company in whether they continue to shop with us. There is a proactive solution the company can execute within, but its time-bound. It will not only require internal stakeholders and likely a 3rd party of management bias experts to post-mortem the degree to which discrimination occurred, but also an assessment of all the male leaders who work as peers, under, or closely with the EVP, as his agenda to suppress or manage out the companies top talent in its female leaders extends beyond him and qualfies this topic as a scandal versus an isolated incident confined to one employee, hired by the outgoing CEO, who is both unqualified in his role from a skills and knowledge base perspective, but also as someone who represents the most shameful mentality which can exist among modern day leadership.