Stupid, mean, American managers…

Stupid, mean, American managers…

March 20th, 2006 · 50CommentsStupid%2C+mean%2C+American+managers...2006-03-20+02%3A06%3A41danwarne

This guy claims Apple fired him for performing this poem at the internal Apple talent show.

Tags: Apple · Funny-haha

50CommentsStupid%2C+mean%2C+American+managers...2006-03-20+02%3A06%3A41danwarne so far ↓

1 Rob Irwin // Mar 21, 2006 at 12:42 pm

Wow… and that's from a company who has often used rebels, free thinkers and people who typically go against the norm in its promotions. Kinda hypocritical. I'll have to blog this after work.
2 David Flynn // Mar 21, 2006 at 3:18 pm

While this _could_ have been a huge over-reaction on behalf of management, Rob, I'd suggest that there are at least two sides to every story and we don't know an other than this one. (As Dan rightly says, "this guy claims…"

Perhaps it was simply "the last straw" or even "We _finally_ have a way to get rid of this guy". Now, I'm not saying anything against this chap. Just saying that I've seen plenty of instances where what seems like a small indiscretion is used to exit someone who has been dropping the ball in many other ways that, while more serious, have not provided a simple straight-forward path to the door. So on the outside and from one side it's unfair, a storm brewed from a teacup, but that seemingly minor offence can also be the long-awaited means to let go of someone you've not quite been able to nail. Almost anyone who has been a manager (especially but not exclusively in the public sector) will perhaps relate to that.

Of course, this opens up the whole issue of "On what exact official grounds was he fired?" and, of local relevance right about now, could stuff like this happen under Australia's new workplace relation laws?(The answer of course being a huge "YES!").

David
3 David Flynn // Mar 21, 2006 at 3:20 pm

PS: I thought his poem was a hoot, and so it seemed did much of his audience!
4 Rob Irwin // Mar 21, 2006 at 3:25 pm

Oh, look, of course there's two sides to every story. Indeed, there's nothing to say that the whole thing's not a big hoax, either. Elaborate and seemingly pointless, if it was, but still possible too!

But if we take it all at face value, and consider his comment that this came down from a VP, you wonder whether the VP would have known the guy from a bar of soap before he stepped up onstage. If Apple's anything like most big companies, that would probably be the case. And, if that *was* the case, how would the VP be working off previous knowledge (in a scenario like the one you paint where the performance was thew straw that broke the camel's back)?

All in all, it would be a very harsh thing to be fired over. Especially when it was in, what you assume is, a closed environment with no customers, etc, around.
5 David Flynn // Mar 21, 2006 at 3:45 pm

Agreed, harsh to fire on this alone. All I'm saying is there might be more to it. And if we take the scenario as shown, while the VP might not have known this chap from Adam, it could have been a sequence of "VP gets narked" > "Managers scramble for cover by saying he's beed trouble for a while" > "Managers lower the boom to CYA re: narked VP". That's of course one possible course, depending on how literally one takes "Te VP fired me / VP got me fired" thing.
6 Rob Irwin // Mar 21, 2006 at 3:51 pm

Indeed. But, you know, his misfortune is ultimately our gain as we got to see that truly awful woman singing :)
7 David Flynn // Mar 21, 2006 at 4:31 pm

Dear gods, yes, what WAS that ruckus? Let's just all hope she s not on ANY team doing ANY work connected with vocal tracks and GarageBand!

The personal blog of Dan Warne, Online Editor, APC Magazine

Stupid, mean, American managers…

March 20th, 2006 · 50CommentsStupid%2C+mean%2C+American+managers...2006-03-20+02%3A06%3A41danwarne

About this blog

Most-read posts

Recent Posts

The personal blog of Dan Warne, Online Editor, APC Magazine

Stupid, mean, American managers…

March 20th, 2006 · 50Commentshttp://danwarne.com/stupid-mean-american-managers/Stupid%2C+mean%2C+American+managers...2006-03-20+02%3A06%3A41danwarne

About this blog

Most-read posts

Recent Posts

March 20th, 2006 · 50CommentsStupid%2C+mean%2C+American+managers...2006-03-20+02%3A06%3A41danwarne