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I Got Fired

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by editorhoo, Nov 29, 2008.

  1. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    sorry to hear this, hoo.

    one bit of advice: when you fill out your unemployment paperwork and you get to the part that asks you to explain why you were terminated, make full use of the "if you have more information, attach another sheet of paper" directive.

    tell the entire story.
     
  2. Paper Dragon

    Paper Dragon Member

    Is the "rival" paper hiring? I'd talk to the guy your publisher is feuding with and ask him for a job.
     
  3. Cadet

    Cadet Guest

    EH, I'd venture a guess and say the two full-timers are 1) scared for their livelihoods and 2) drowning in work without their editor around. They may be too scared to reach out to you at this time. They may have been expressly forbidden to by the brass, who knows. Don't think badly of them just yet.
     
  4. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Plus, they may have survivor's guilt as well. They may not know what to say to you.

    I had a coworker who, although I didn't know him that well, had gotten along with him OK. The coworker got let go due to economics while I was on vacation and I didn't get back to work for another week. I still feel bad that I didn't e-mail him or something with a 'good luck' or anything like that.
     
  5. editorhoo

    editorhoo Member

    There's been a lot of discussion on here about "at-will" employment, and I'd like to address that.

    I live in an at-will state and that fact is pointed out in our extremely rudimentary employee handbook. I've always thought that was complete B.S. I mean, seriously, you can just terminate someone's employment for no reason? Doesn't that just open the book for racism and discrimination?

    But even if I am wrong, and "at-will" is a very real thing, then how can you explain this? About five years ago, we had a supervisor's meeting in which we were strictly told that we couldn't just fire someone. There had to be some sort of progression. The person in question had to be written up and explained that his/her actions had to change. We had to explain to the employee specifically what he/she did that was wrong and give them a chance to rectify their behavior. If the behavior didn't change, we were to continue writing the person up.

    The bottom line was explained to me like this: If a person was about to get fired, because of the progression I aforementioned, said person would know beforehand upon being called on the carpet, that he/she was going to get fired because there had been a process.

    I never was explained where this policy came from, but I absolutely got the feeling that someone, somewhere in my chain had been wrongfully fired, and my bosses wanted to legally protect themselves from something similar happening in the future.

    Obviously, I was not afforded the luxury of being told I did something wrong, and not given the due process I was told to give others.
     
  6. #52 Psycho T

    #52 Psycho T Member

    I hope that's not the case because I've continued talking with editorhoo since he was fired.
     
  7. editorhoo

    editorhoo Member

    Cadet,

    One of the employees fits your description perfectly. He was a great worker for me and someone I respect to this day. He would have run through a brick wall for me. At the same time, he definitely could be described as a bit sheepish, and I could see him not knowing what to say to me at this point.

    The other employee? Not so much. Almost from the moment I hired him, people on my staff started telling me that he was trying to get me fired because he was gunning for my job. And if anyone thinks that's sour grapes, I'll just say that no less than four people on my staff (current and past) have told me such, and they have no personal motivation concerning this issue whatsoever.

    Back in May, I caught this employee, who has been determined to get me fired for his own personal gain, changing a quote in one of my stories that he edited to make it obscenely incorrect. He changed a personal pronoun (Phil) into a verb (fill). I think most of the people on here understand that's not a mistake a writer makes.

    Upon finding this misdoing, I wrote my publisher a letter on company letterhead notifying him of my employee's malfeasances (sp?) and that I had been hearing for years that he was undermining my authority, and I was pretty much sick of it.

    Six months later, the little bastard gets his wish.
     
  8. editorhoo

    editorhoo Member

    The "rival" paper feels extremely guilty for what happened to me, at least the guy I've talked to. But the publisher? I don't think he's exactly someone as low on the totem poll as myself speaks to. He's big-time. I'm a shit.
     
  9. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Was there anything written saying that you could not write for any publication?
     
  10. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    A sports editor is a department head. It's not like you're a part-time janitor knocking on his door.

    I'd emphatically second the suggestions of many people above -- talk to a lawyer. He will be able to tell you more accurately what your options are.

    If you haven't been written up for any previous transgressions, and unless it's an explicit policy at your paper that you cannot write for competing publications (and those publications defined by name), the whole thing just smells.

    The fact that there's a previously-established practice of copy-sharing between the two papers makes it sound even shakier.

    And, the fact of your department-head meeting of five years ago establishing that at least in their own corporate view, they did NOT have simply unfettered "at-will" authority to fire anybody they wanted any time they wanted (although you'd have to get somebody else to substantiate your account of the meeting).

    All this is guesswork -- only a lawyer can tell you if you really have a case.
     
  11. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member

    At-will means you can be fired for any reason, good, bad, or indifferent, at any time, with the exception of anything that would make it illegal to (race, sex, medical, etc).

    I'm guessing that supervisor meeting you had was a company policy, which at that time, they used to go above and beyond the state law.

    in other words, the state law was there, but they tried to make it seem as if they were helping the employees even moreso. But the bottom line, all they really needed to do was meet the state guideline.

    Not sure that I'm explaining this real well. tho.
     
  12. Gold

    Gold Active Member

    First thing which strikes me is whether there is a written policy against writing a story for another paper. The fact that you have traded stories with the other paper would make it seem that, in fact, there was no policy.

    Perhaps in at-will states, you can fire anybody for any reason so long as it is not illegal, i.e. discrimination, demaning the employee perform an illegal act, etc. However, employers need to be careful because a fired employee, whether they were fired with or without justification, could come back in the real world and say they were fired illegally. If the publisher isn't the owner, the owner might be rather upset and being caused a lot of trouble.

    Good Luck with whichever route you choose to pursue.
     
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