TS: No pressure, but resign, or else
There's nothing more likely to land an employee in hot water with the boss than a smidgen of bare-faced cheek.
Peter Cowgill, the finance director of sportswear retailer JD Sports, can certainly testify to that after he shot himself in the foot recently.
Cowgill said, as the retailer announced solid results after a fairly wretched time, that he would be transferring his services away from the sportswear retailer with a decent pay-off in the next few months.
During a conference call he said: ‘Over the past six months I’ve been approached by three different plcs and I haven’t pursued any of them because I’ve had to restore financial credibility to the company.’
However, the idea that he would get a golden handshake was dismissed by chairman John Wardle despite the fact that the company recently announced healthy half-year results.
Cowgill denied he had a bust-up with Mr Wardle, but said he would get a pay-off if he left.
However, Wardle intercepted the conversation on a conference call to say: ‘Peter has resigned.’
But the question remained, would Cowgill receive a pay-off? ‘Not to my knowledge,’ Mr Wardle said, leaving Mr Cowgill to reply: ‘I only said I was hopeful.’
‘Thank you for stirring this pot,’ Wardle added. ‘We were getting on well at the beginning of this.
‘We’re just going to put the phone down so we can have a fight.’
Taking Stock is fairly certain which of the two was the more likely to land the KO punch.