Suddenly, I have found myself playing the role of Don Quixote tilting at the windmills of poor executive decisions. I didn't intend to play this role, but the inhabitants of boardrooms and the corner offices are making the job so easy.

The latest example of poor decisions and announcement comes courtesy of Macy's (NYSE: M). The retailer announced on Monday that it would lay off roughly 7,000 workers and cut its dividend in half in hopes of saving money. So, what is the next announcement that the company makes? If you guessed performance bonus payments to executives, give yourself a pat on the back.

Wal-Mart is working hard to crack down on unscrupulous employees. According to the New York Times:

Over the last five years, Wal-Mart has assembled a team of former officials from the C.I.A., F.B.I. and Justice Department whose elaborate, at times globetrotting, investigations have led to the ouster of a high-profile board member who used company funds to buy hunting equipment, two senior advertising executives who took expensive gifts from a potential supplier and a computer technician who taped a reporter's telephone calls.

Wal-Mart's efforts to keep an eye on its employees -- as evidenced in the Julie Roehm scandal -- go far beyond what most employers do. And the company's efforts to keep out unions are legendary. While there's certainly nothing wrong with working hard to monitor the performance and integrity of employees, it's hard to jive the company's hardline stance on these issues with their inability to keep their parking lots safe, issues involving managers denying employees overtime and forcing them to work off the clock, labor issues at factories in third world countries, and the company's use of illegal immigrants to clean its stores at night (granted, Wal-Mart did not hire those people themselves, they had hired a contractor).

Perhaps if Wal-Mart officials attack these scandals which are bringing the company so much negative publicity with the same vigor they used to investigate Julie Roehm's love-life, they can do a lot to better the retailer's image?