With Co-Workers like this: Skip the Retirement party!

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Wow.
Can't wait to see the fallout from this ...

Controversial columnist Stu Bykofsky left The Philadelphia Inquirer last week after 47 years in the job, with his colleagues holding a retirement bash last Friday.
Things appeared to be going smoothly at the event, until Bykofsky's nemesis - architecture critic Inga Saffron - was invited to share some parting words, which were recorded and shared with Philadelphia Magazine.
Saffron quickly accused Bykofsky of neglecting his duties as a journalist by failing to reach out to a bicycle coalition when he wrote a column condemning cyclists in the city.
'That is a lie!' Bykofsky interjected gruffly, as gathered colleagues laughed nervously.
'That is a lie! I spoke to them, and I can tell you who I spoke to! THAT IS A ******* LIE!' he continued yelling, as he pointed his finger at Saffron in anger.
'I don't want to stand here and listen to this bulls**t!' he then spluttered.
However, Saffron wasn't done with roasting her rival - calmly continuing with her savage speech.
'So we disagree on just about everything of his three favorite subjects - pistols, prostitutes and puppies, although he we might find common ground on the puppies... ' Saffron mused.
She continued: 'For all that, I did read Stu sometimes, not always, not every crazy column, but some of them -and then he left me outraged. Like the infamous column about his taste for his child prostitutes in Thailand..'
'That is a total f**king lie!' Bykosky interjected in rage.
That is a total f**king lie!' Bykofsky wasn't taking Saffrom's criticism lightly, responding with rage
'That's online, that's still available!' Saffron insisted, referring to a controversial 2011 piece he wrote about Thai sex workers.
She then accused Bykosky of sexism, describing him as a 'newspaperman, not a journalist'.
"He hails from a time when people who put out newspapers were men, and it is not lost on me that some of the gratuitous attacks were leveled against women. So with his leaving, I hope we are getting a little further away from that unfortunate time.'

Why would anyone allow her to speak, muchless continue that rant a retirement party? And if this guy was such a POS, why have a retirement in the first place?

Both these folks sound like miserable pricks.

Newspaper columnist Stu Bykofsky is SLAMMED by rival writer at his farewell party | Daily Mail Online
 
Wow.
Can't wait to see the fallout from this ...



Why would anyone allow her to speak, muchless continue that rant a retirement party? And if this guy was such a POS, why have a retirement in the first place?

Both these folks sound like miserable pricks.

Newspaper columnist Stu Bykofsky is SLAMMED by rival writer at his farewell party | Daily Mail Online
Only in this gawdforsaken business. What happened at that party is a disgrace. Newspapers must die ... now. The atmosphere is horrible with only the hedge fund owners and CEO's of companies and the highest suits at the individual papers getting anything out of them. This is a disgraceful situation in this thread. Shame on the person who blasted the guy who is retiring.
 
Heard of a Gannett publisher who was "resigned" and given a going-away party in the newsroom anyway.

They wheeled out a cake for him, and without a word, he whipped out his **** and pissed directly on the cake, in front of everyone, then zipped up and walked out.
 
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Wow.
Can't wait to see the fallout from this ...



Why would anyone allow her to speak, muchless continue that rant a retirement party? And if this guy was such a POS, why have a retirement in the first place?

Both these folks sound like miserable pricks.

Newspaper columnist Stu Bykofsky is SLAMMED by rival writer at his farewell party | Daily Mail Online

Papers still have architecure critics? Who work in the newsroom no less? I find that more shocking.
 
That's the kind of old-timey, down-and-dirty newsroom I want to see come on back.

They should've hired a dwarf Asian escort (....a real reporter would know where to find one....) to serenade Bykofsky on his way out but, sigh. You can't have everything.
 
Heard of a Gannett publisher who was "resigned" and given a going-away party in the newsroom anyway.

They wheeled out a cake for him, and without a word, he whipped out his **** and pissed directly on the cake, in front of everyone, then zipped up and walked out.
I'd think in this day and age of HR he'd be arrested.
 
Heard of a Gannett publisher who was "resigned" and given a going-away party in the newsroom anyway.

They wheeled out a cake for him, and without a word, he whipped out his **** and pissed directly on the cake, in front of everyone, then zipped up and walked out.
But did it burn when he did that?
 
Heard of a Gannett publisher who was "resigned" and given a going-away party in the newsroom anyway.

They wheeled out a cake for him, and without a word, he whipped out his **** and pissed directly on the cake, in front of everyone, then zipped up and walked out.
Maybe he was offended by the bakery.
 
Like most retirement parties in the newsroom, I'd have just taken a plate of food and gone back to my cave in sports. Have a nice life, guy.

Stories like the one that started this thread are one of the reasons why I want my retirement to be a low-key event in the newsroom when the time comes (and with any luck it'll be in two years or so). No gathering, no food, no cake. If you sincerely want to wish me luck, do so one on one. Or join me for lunch or a drink -- and I'll do the buying.

Our last newsroom departure involved someone who was not especially well-liked, and I could have sworn I heard someone on the fringes of the assembled group humming, "Ding-dong, the witch is dead."
 
Stories like the one that started this thread are one of the reasons why I want my retirement to be a low-key event in the newsroom when the time comes (and with any luck it'll be in two years or so). No gathering, no food, no cake. If you sincerely want to wish me luck, do so one on one. Or join me for lunch or a drink -- and I'll do the buying.

Our last newsroom departure involved someone who was not especially well-liked, and I could have sworn I heard someone on the fringes of the assembled group humming, "Ding-dong, the witch is dead."

I once worked in a bureau that had zero camaraderie, people barely even talked to each other. So when I moved on to another job and got the standard going-away party with cake, there were actually two cakes -- because there was no communication over whose turn it was to get it. But on the bright side, there could have been zero cakes.
 
I recall a retirement party -- or maybe it was a new-job-so-he's-leaving party -- for a reporter where I worked, held at the corner tavern where many of the newsroom employees would congregate after their shifts. The place had a downstairs party room, and when one jackass reporter disliked by many showed up, it was only a few minutes before another -- a great friend of the guest of honor -- threw the guy out, literally by the old method of grabbing the guy's collar with one hand and the back of his britches with the other, walking him briskly up the stairs and shoving him through the front door out to the sidewalk.

Highlight of the night and, so many years later, the only real memory of the gathering.
 
When I took my buyout I was told to keep it quiet until the paper made the announcement
They never did
People found out when the new schedule came out and my name wasn't on it
God bless them, I still got a goodbye page, some gifts and a makeshift party after my last shift three days later
 
Heard of a Gannett publisher who was "resigned" and given a going-away party in the newsroom anyway.

They wheeled out a cake for him, and without a word, he whipped out his **** and pissed directly on the cake, in front of everyone, then zipped up and walked out.

Urine 2000
 
Or the lady at my current job who is organizing her own going away party... when most of us are working....
 
Heard of a Gannett publisher who was "resigned" and given a going-away party in the newsroom anyway.

They wheeled out a cake for him, and without a word, he whipped out his **** and pissed directly on the cake, in front of everyone, then zipped up and walked out.

Had that happen at my shop too
 
Great thread. Funny stories. ... I'd like to request to the suits, kill these parties. If the environment in newspapers were better, fine. But the employees all know how badly they've been treated with the no raises policy, the low grades policy, the intimidation. There's no reason to pretend things are great when somebody retires. Just let the person walk out for gosh sakes.
 

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