David Steele recounts his last day at the Baltimore Sun

Best of luck to Mr. Steele and pox and pestilence upon the house of Sam Zell and his minions.

 

Wow, that was an incredible read.

I have a friend who woke up one morning decided to check his work email as he did every morning and found out he was locked out. He called the IT guys at his paper who transferred him to his SE who told him he was being let go.

The Scott Carter story from last year blew my mind, being told over the phone and then was told he had to drive from Tallahassee to Tampa the next day to return his cell and laptop.

Calling someone while they're covering an event is just insane.

 

That one made my gut hurt, and I thought I was pretty callous at this point.

 

Sometimes I start to feel like I've gotten to that point, but then I hear about a friend or someone I've worked with or alongside losing their job and it comes back.

All of the stories about layoffs should make us mad. It's just that some, like this one, and the Isaacson deal at the Chicago Tribune and the whole debacle at the Miami Herald just make me madder and madder.

 

A good, but sad read.

 

I agree, there's no good way to be laid off (trust me on that one). But -- with the large exception of arranging for the next day's column before calling Steele -- I'm not sure anyone did anything wrong here.

You're the editor and someone hands you a list of people you're losing, and you know your guy is at the game. What are you supposed to do? Call him and ask him to come to the office without telling him why, just so you can tell him to his face? He knows at that moment what's happening, and the trip back to the office just prolongs the agony. Was the editor supposed to let Steele cover the game and wait to tell him later?

It's just an ugly thing, no matter how it happens.

 

There's no "right" way to do it, but there are ways that are "less wrong"

 

yes.

spineless effers.

i know the boss is just folowing orders. but c'mon. bosses, grow a pair, will you, please? imagine if it had been handled just this way. the boss comes off as a true human being, a real mensch.

instead, david gets a column about it. good for him to write it. just another case of management mishandling a terrible situation.

 

if i were a boss put in that position, i'd try to get out to the game where my guy is working and tell him in person

maybe not always possible, but i think that would be the best way

but yeah, no good way to do this

 

Arnold.

You let him cover the game. You let him write his column. You let him file it. You then tell him to come into the newsroom the next day and tell him to his face.

He was, after all, being paid through May.

They did, after all, find a replacement to his column AHEAD OF TIME. So they could have done it BEFORE sending him to the game. Or, scrapped the replacement of his column.

 

Walk your ass down to the ballpark. Or tell him not to go to the game in the first place, and instead come to the office. Anything less is the coward's way out.