Memorable farewells

When I left a place after being sports editor for 11 years, I took off a couple hours before the time I told the newsroom I would be heading out. As if I was going to the bathroom or something. It was how I wanted to remember the place. Everybody working at their desks.

Somebody called and yelled at me for doing it, but understood when I told him why.

 

What about the wOBA guy or the RBI guy?

 

"Farewell, old friend!"

 

I committed a cardinal sin of sports writing when I quit my job. I quit on a Friday, about four hours before kickoff on a busy night in October. Wasn't planned that way, at all. But when you have had enough, you've had enough. It wasn't until I was walking out the door to my car that I realized it was Friday and that I was leaving my staff (I was sports editor....errrrr content coach) in a bind. I didn't get a chance to tell them goodbye (not that night at least), nor did I tell anyone in the newsroom goodbye. The only person I talked to on my way out was the executive editor and it was only to turn in my notice, my phone and my badge. I don't think I said a word to her outside of "the password to unlock the phone is...."

There are times I regret how I did it, but I don't regret doing it. I just felt really bad for having stuck my friends with a lot of extra work on a Friday night (and the subsequent weeks to follow), but they all understood my frustration and we're still good friends to this day. It was a toxic environment and I had to get out of it. I'm better for it.

As far as a co-worker leaving in style, a guy I worked with many, many moons back went out with a bang....literally. He had made up his mind that he was going to quit, but hadn't told anyone but me. On the last night he was scheduled to work, he sent our boss home early, saying he'd finish everything up for us. Well, he did more than that. Let's just say when the early morning people arrived the next day, he and his girlfriend were found in a sleeping bag on the newsroom floor. They were both naked. He didn't get a chance to quit, obviously. When I saw him later that day, he told me all the places he and his girl had fooled around (included the publisher's office, on his couch). I never looked at that newsroom the same way again.

 

I don't remember the exact details of this one, but it was an issue over the 10- or 15-minute breaks that employees were supposed to get every few hours. Management was strict and it turned out that the only people who got breaks were the smokers, who had to go outside to smoke.
One guy -- hard worker, talented -- always had his breaks denied. Too busy, deadlines, we need you here. That happened frequently.
One day they told him to do something that was another guy's job. He said, "Why can't he do it?" And he was told that the guy was on his smoke break.
So he threw an editing pencil across the newsroom at the clock and quit, walked right out of the building. Never came back.

 

When I got the call from a Gannett job of 20-plus years, they pulled me into the publisher's conference room, then tried to shoo me out the side door, telling me I could pick up my personal effects later.

I told them I was going to go down and tell everyone goodbye, and the ME kept trying to talk me out of it.

I told her she would have to call the police if she was determined to keep me out of the newsroom. So I went down, shook hands and shared hugs with people who were crying and as emotional as I was.

I'm told the ME was pissed big-time that I didn't slide away quietly. I'm sure she was more pissed when people who she thought were loyal servants told me things like, "Fuck this place, you're better off not being here."

 

A few others I've been aware of:
-- Night desk person was wheelchair-bound for a few years. She had been in a car accident after covering a late meeting and was in a collision with a drunken driver. When she was laid off, the security guard wheeled her out into the parking lot. She asked if she could go back in and call her daughter to drive her home. They said no.
-- Sports editor had just unwrapped his lunch when he was called to go to HR. He goes, gets the axe and is told to leave the building immediately directly from the HR office, which was near the front entrance. He said no, he was going to go back to his desk, throw away his lunch and get his briefcase. After a contentious discussion, they relented.
-- In the summer, the college writer was called into the office. Writer met the SE and they head down a hallway. They ran into the ASE, who hadn't expected to see the writer in the office. "Oh, you're here. When you're done, let's talk about the preseason football coverage." Writer and SE proceed to HR where writer is laid off.

There are others that just make you cringe. You watch "Up In The Air" and you wonder how Clooney came out of it without a broken nose or bloody lip.

 

@ChrisLong That first one is as bad as it gets. How cruel! I am glad I never saw stuff as bad as that. There was only one termination at my paper (I got out before things got real bad.) and it was a little awkward. HR person based a few states away visits office. So we knew something was up. For being HR, she was dressed I'd say very inappropriately. That was the only weird thing. I wonder if she asked the person she led out on a date.

 

The first time our place did layoffs, the instructions for every employee were to stay home by your phone. If you're getting laid off, you'll get a call. Layoffs would begin at 8 a.m.

I got a call at about 8:02 ... from some fucking telemarketer. Man, did my heart jump though.

Such a gutless way to do it. They said it was to preserve the dignity of those let go. Bullshit. It was so the managing editor didn't have to look anyone in the eye.

 

At one stop, the long-time wire editor had already told the editor he was retiring at the end of the month. A couple of weeks before the date, the managing editor called him at home and ripped him a new one over some story that didn't get in. That afternoon, the wire guy came in at his usual time, handed his resignation letter to the newsroom secretary and marched right out. And, if I had known what was going on, I would have given him a standing o.

 

One more about exit interviews ... thankfully this wasn't me, but a friend at my first full-time newspaper gig.

the HR guy wanted to know why my friend was leaving, and a whole laundry list of problems with the newsroom, management, etc. came spewing out. The HR man sat there and looked blankly at him, writing none of it down.

A bit later, my friend was asked to say how much he'd be making at his new job. Declining to give the number, the HR man wanted to know if it was more or less. When he said "more," that's when something was scribbled down on the exit interview sheet.

I'm sure a lot of this is done electronically now ... and the information is just as useless and ignored as before.

 

I came in to work one day several years ago. Tried to type my password in, didn't work, figured it was me. Made a call to set up a story, left a message, then the sports editor and managing editor called me into a meeting.
Walked in and saw the HR woman sitting there, so knew my time was up. Got all my info, went back to my desk to grab my stuff, phone rings, it's the person I called for a story, so I took the notes.
Got up to leave and the SE said I didn't need to do the story, then the ME said they'd pay me $20 as a stringer to write it. SE actually called the ME a dick.