And another one bites the dust ... oh, wait

Good Luck in the future. In 3 to 5 years, maybe you will be in a much better position and look back on this as turning out to be a break for you.

I think the most important thing is to have faith in your own work and abilities. Management is what it is, and what it is isn't good.

I would also reach out to your sources and people in the community and let them know what happened. Stick to the basic things and don't drone on about what idiots the people who fired you are - that will come out quickly enough.

The part about not allowing you to clean out your desk is extremely odd and is poor management practice. Usually you want to get the fired employee out of the business as quickly as possible. Also, if you have any management sense at all, you wouldn't want to be in a position of having a fired employee say that management threw out/stole some personal effects.

 

I've worked at several places that don't let the employee clean out their desk. The thinking is to avoid any possible confrontations or incidents. Basically, they feel that the quicker they get the individual beyond the security desk and out of the building, before they can think too much, the better.

Now, if you're at a small shop with no security, I'm not sure the safest way to handle it.

But, yes, it does suck not being able to clean out your own desk. Often times it is the fired person's former colleagues who box it all up, since they are most likely to know what is needed and what is not. But, again, some publications have certain rules about what you can and can't let them take out, e.g. contact lists, anything on the computer, etc., are usually going to be held and/or wiped.

It's awful, but it's why it's good to send a lot of emails to your Gmail or Hotmail or Yahoo, etc., with your phone lists and so forth so if you get fired you don't lose all the info you worked so hard to collect.

 

I'm surprised some of these places don't make all of their employees stand and recite a corporate pledge of allegiance every day. Respect is a two-way street, etc.

 

I sincerely hope this works out for you. The universe is not a just enough place that good things always happen to good people, but in cases like this where they just might, I have to smile.

 

Walmart does have employee rallies. I can't imagine, after about the third or fourth one, cheering along without my eyes rolling in my head.

 

The idea that a veteran, professional line member of a business entity makes $12.50 an hour after years on the job -- and yet the business feels it must fire said professional -- really shines a light on the shitty economics that have gripped newspapers.

Anyone holding stock in a newspaper company is a fool.

 

But if you hold stock of companies that pay workers in China a fraction of that...hooray?

Fortunately, people in foreign countries don't quite grasp HS sports and local politics from 6,000 miles away. Well, they don't yet, anyway.

 

My life is a bit crazy now so I've been out of the loop on SJ for a while but I feel like I have to throw my two cents in here.
Rhody is a pain in the ass but he is, by far, the best sports reporter in our state. I don't say that because I consider him a friend, I say that because he has the hardware to back it up.
What happened here, quite honestly, is that the person in charge of this publication is a complete and total hack who is also the most insecure professional I have ever encountered in my entire life.
This was 100 percent a personal vendetta because the person in charge didn't like Rhody because he dares ask "Why" when told to do something stupid.
Two months ago, this same hack demoted me because I rightfully refused to run a recycled column from a dipshit "editorial assistant" that was, save for a change in the dates to reflect the new calendar, a word-for-word self-plagiarized piece.
Her response was that you can't plagiarize yourself because she does not know, nor does she care, about the basic core relationship between a reader and a newspaper.
Thankfully, I bit my tongue, took the demotion because I didn't want to be out of work during the holiday season and on January 2nd, the day after our vacation benefits recycled, I gave them my notice, effective immediately, and told them in no uncertain terms to pay me my two wees of vacation and to f**k themselves.
Two weeks after I left, they drove away our most beloved freelance reporter, who is very likely getting inducted into our Press Association Hall of Fame this year, and now Rhody is gone.
So in a total of five weeks, they gutted themselves and got rid of three of the only five competent people in the entire organization.
But that's what happens when your ship is being steered by someone intent in running it into an iceberg.

Rhody, keep your head up. You're better than those hacks and we'll laugh about this one day VERY soon when they're out of business.