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The benefits of being fired

F

flybynight

TheBigA said:
Here's what the story says:
Would you have preferred him being informed at home?
Click to expand...

I was fired once over the phone while sitting on my comfy couch. Best firing I ever had!

Unlike other terminations, I hadn't just arrived at work, fully ready for a whole workday---which always pissed me off.

ALL radio terminations should be done over the phone while you're at home with your feet up. It sure beats the workplace termination drama.
 
flybynight said:
I was fired once over the phone while sitting on my comfy couch. Best firing I ever had!
Click to expand...

I like mine better. I was last hired, first fired. Informed at the end of my shift. I was hired by a bigger competitor within the hour. Spent less than an hour out of work. Never had time to get unemployment.

My exit interview (the next day) was hilarious, because I'd already been hired by the competition.
 
TheBigA said:
I like mine better. I was last hired, first fired. Informed at the end of my shift. I was hired by a bigger competitor within the hour. Spent less than an hour out of work. Never had time to get unemployment.
Click to expand...

I still like mine better. I got to sit on my comfy couch collecting unemployment for 2 months, barhopping with friends all summer, and then go to a better timeslot on a competitor once September rolled around.
 
flybynight said:
I still like mine better. I got to sit on my comfy couch collecting unemployment for 2 months, barhopping with friends all summer, and then go to a better timeslot on a competitor once September rolled around.
Click to expand...

I like mine even better. In a galaxy far away at a time long ago, I got downsized. Was told the bad news in my own office. Then I was taken to another office where I was asked to sign on as consultant for the next 10 years.

Not being totally stupid, I signed. Didn't have to commute, worked from home, fewer hours and made nearly the same money. And with the severance from the full-time job, made more that year than I ever had from working. Plus I added a bunch of clients outside the US, and still worked less.

In a similar manner, I have a friend who was a star seller at a major station in his market. He had a disagreement with management about a new commission structure, and he was told to take it or leave it. He said he would leave, but he wanted his contract voided in its totality. The next week, he was offered the GM position at a better station, where they had wanted him all along but were afraid to make an offer for fear of a suit for tortuous interference with his existing contract!
 
DavidEduardo said:

And with the severance from the full-time job, made more that year than I ever had from working.
contract!
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Along those same lines, I had a friend years ago who programmed an eclectic new format at the time, but was always at odds with station consultants. He was hired and fired from 4 different top-15 market stations (2 of them with legendary calls), within one year.

After the 4th termination, he told me that because of his severance packages, he was in all likelihood the highest paid programmer in the country that year, save Scott Shannon at Pirate.
 
flybynight said:
Along those same lines, I had a friend years ago who programmed an eclectic new format at the time, but was always at odds with station consultants. He was hired and fired from 4 different top-15 market stations (2 of them with legendary calls), within one year.

After the 4th termination, he told me that because of his severance packages, he was in all likelihood the highest paid programmer in the country that year, save Scott Shannon at Pirate.
Click to expand...

This is actually an interesting topic of itself... not all firings are definitive or disastrous.

Maybe these posts should be moved to the national section as a separate thread. There are likely some good stories here.
 
flybynight said:
I still like mine better. I got to sit on my comfy couch collecting unemployment for 2 months, barhopping with friends all summer, and then go to a better timeslot on a competitor once September rolled around.
Click to expand...

Nice!

I was let go from the radio division I built because I had a fight (I got angry and offensive... my fault) when the parent company did not follow through on its purchases in New York and Miami and another market. I was on the beach, literally as I was in Puerto Rico, for 90 days and even took a Caribbean cruise and did island hopping. And then I got called by Metroplex to manage in Miami.

Some of my friends accused me of having sacrificed a chicken... or maybe even a goat... in a santeria ritual to make that happen so delightfully.

And it points out the fact that anyone with a career in radio who says the have never been fired is probably lying.
 
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DavidEduardo said:


I like mine even better. In a galaxy far away at a time long ago, I got downsized. Was told the bad news in my own office. Then I was taken to another office where I was asked to sign on as consultant for the next 10 years.

Not being totally stupid, I signed. Didn't have to commute, worked from home, fewer hours and made nearly the same money. And with the severance from the full-time job, made more that year than I ever had from working. Plus I added a bunch of clients outside the US, and still worked less.

In a similar manner, I have a friend who was a star seller at a major station in his market. He had a disagreement with management about a new commission structure, and he was told to take it or leave it. He said he would leave, but he wanted his contract voided in its totality. The next week, he was offered the GM position at a better station, where they had wanted him all along but were afraid to make an offer for fear of a suit for tortuous interference with his existing contract!
Click to expand...

Ain't karma wunnerfull?
 
Not a radio firing, not a "Benefit" but this one always stuck with me.

Got laid off from a marketing company that had a very rough transition going from a legendary print product to pretty crappy digital one. Half my department got cut in one swoop. We were told in a conference room... that had congratulations balloons and signs all over it. The conference room had been booked for a baby shower later that day
 
If you a person in radio, and still under contract you any least get the money off that contract, until it runs out but in less you have played of money saved up, you have to find another job somewhere even in national radio like hook up with national network like if you a sports talk show, you go to a rival sports station. Like say if you worked on ESPN Radio, you might go to NBC Sports, or FXO Sports Radio. But is there really any good way of being hired. Calling somebody on the phone, and firing them that way might seem the chicken way to do that., even through it saves that former employee time for coming in. But you still might have to come in, say if you have your own office, you have to come in and clean out your office, or maybe a locker if that is what you have.
 
From a Fortune 50 company about 20 years ago:

They had announced a "layoff" (euphemism for "you're fired") and would everyone on a list please assemble in the large conference room.

The list had originally been made up with everyone's name on it but those about to be fired had an asterisk next to their name. One extremely bright HR suit noticed that and raised the issue that it was supposed to be announced privately whereupon another extremely bright HR employee decided to "white out" the asterisks thereby making the issue moot.

And you wonder how big companies suddenly go out of business for no apparent reason.....
 
Not related to radio.....but back in the early '90s I was working at a hardware store that had 2 locations in the same city. I was a combo truck driver/warehouse person.
Not long after the company was taken over by the owner's son......an announcement was made over the PA system:
"I need to see the following people in my office -- IMMEDIATELY!"......and proceeded to read off names.
We showed up in his office.....whereupon we were told....."If you are HERE.....you still have job.....anyone NOT here....is no longer employed here.....!"
A somewhat "novel" approach to the situation, IMO....
(BTW.....the boss's own cousin was booted that day!!!)
 
Oldie919 said:
We showed up in his office.....whereupon we were told....."If you are HERE.....you still have job.....anyone NOT here....is no longer employed here.....!"
A somewhat "novel" approach to the situation, IMO....
Click to expand...

That was exactly the opener to the meeting in the big meeting room I referred to earlier. Only difference was they handed out the employee list (complete with white-outed asterisks) where those unfortunate people were listed.

Reminds me of the old Army joke. Seems Cpl Jones father had died but the Sergeant was at a loss to figure out how to tell him. In true Army fashion he assembled the company in ranks then asked: "Everyone who has a living father step forward." "WHERE YOU GOING JONES!?"
 
Once I had left after my air shift on a Saturday morning and was about to leave town for the weekend. Stopped to get my wife and kid, and had a phone message from the PD, asking me to come back in, for what turned out to be the firing meeting. (this was before cellphones were in wide usage). Also got the firing/layoff by phone once when I couldn't come in for it personally.
 
Firing employees by media suits seems to be an industry wide embarrassment. I understand why a station owner wouldn't want an employee being terminated to be given air time in the event they became unglued but, I assume, most of the on-air people don't seem to be those types of people. Or are they?

I would think an employee being fired from one station would not want to burn future bridges by taking an on-air swing at their former management.
 
awsherrill said:
Tell that to Inetta the Mood Setta:

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/inettamoodsettaradioresignation.htm

In fairness, she wasn't fired but quit on air.
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That wouldn't even pass for abnormal conversation between high school kids in this day and age. But she did make it clear:

"I know I'm qualified and after saying this I don't care if I ever get another job in radio, period."

She might not have. And at $6/hour you either gotta love your job or be some sort of sucker.
 
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