This month’s Cosmo has a great work horror story:
I really hated my last job. They treated me like crap, and I was so fed up that I actually searched for openings while at work. One day, I saw a posting that looked promising. It had an anonymous email address to send a resume to, and I didn’t think twice about applying. An hour later, I was fired on the spot. Turns out, I had applied to my current employer, and since it was anonymous, I had no clue. They asked me to leave the office immediately.
See, people, this is why I hate anonymous job postings. I always assume they’re traps.
If you don’t want to get fired, you probably shouldn’t show up at work wearing gear of the team that just beat your boss’ favorite team. – Chicago Tribune
How do you choose between two job offers? I wouldn’t know, because that has never ever happened to me. – Forbes Woman
An insider’s look into what it’s like working on a film set, No Strings Attached edition. – Picktainment
The best and most secure jobs to have in 2011 include registered nurse, web developer, financial planner, and truck driver. – CNN
A survey reveals that almost 50 percent of respondents quit a job without having another one lined up, even though the economy was horrible. – Business Insider
Michael Jackson’s former personal assistant has decided to follow Shmuley Boteach’s “exploit my dead friend for a book deal” path to success. – AP
A nuanced look at why so many women with incredibly successful careers are single (note: this one doesn’t blame you for being ambitious). – Sarah Wilson
Anna Wintour recently spoke at an event called “Fashion U,” where high school and college students can learn about the fashion industry. Among other things, she spoke about being fired from a job and advised everyone to follow suit:
I worked for American Harper’s Bazaar . . . they fired me. I recommend that you all get fired, it’s a great learning experience.
Is this why she fires so many people from Vogue? Because she’s hoping to enrich their lives?
Want to get promoted? Can’t while there’s another coworker standing in your way? I’d advise you to ignore advice from Neil Weiner. Weiner, a school handyman, wanted to get promoted to custodian. But he couldn’t as long as there was currently a custodian, Eddie Thompson, doing the job. So what was Weiner’s brilliant plan? To put a bunch of kiddie porn on Thompson’s computer and try to get him fired. Luckily, it didn’t work, but Thompson had to endure several weeks of suspicion and abuse from concerned citizens before his name was finally cleared.
In other news, I bet Gary Glitter is already figuring out how to use this defense in the future.
I’m really digging the new blog Please Fire Me. It’s a simple enough premise: users submit reasons why they’d like to be fired. However, the reasons are about how much their companies/bosses suck, not about something the employee did. And, as any savvy assistant knows, being fired is way better than quitting, because then you get unemployment benefits! Here are a couple of my faves below:
Please fire me. I have to share my workspace with the mistress of the boss. So she thinks she’s the queen of the company and she definitely can’t do anything wrong in the boss’s eyes. And that leaves the rest of us in the office treated like dirt. So please fire me!
Please fire me. I had no idea I’d have to spend hours every day photocopying entire textbooks because you are too cheap to buy extra copies.
Please fire me. I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with your OBGYN picking a birth control that is “better suited” to your body.
Please fire me. I think I just helped my boss cover up a drunk driving hit and run with a mailbox.
And there’s more where that came from.
Les Moonves – head of CBS and husband of Big Brother host Julie Chen – announced today that CBS was cancelling As The World Turns, the network’s last remaining soap opera, just months after industry stalwart Guiding Light went off the air for good. Besides fans of the show, Moonves managed to tick off one very important person – CNBC’s David Faber, who was interviewing him when he dropped the cancellation news. Why might Faber be upset? Probably because his mother-in-law, Marie Masters (pictured), plays a recurring role on the show. HARSH.
From Gawker:
At the end of the (boring) interview about ad spending and stupid business things, Faber couldn’t help but ask about the show getting dropped (do you think he could go home tonight if he didn’t?). Moonves said, “The days of the soap opera have changed very much. Guiding Light left earlier this year and As the World Turns will leave later next year. They’ve had long and distinguished runs and their days are over.” Burn! The saddest thing is, he says it with a bit of a smirk.
Nothing like telling a guy his mother-in-law is a dinosaur on live TV. Faber didn’t make much of a reaction on-air, but what he told Moonves when the cameras turned off probably depends on how he feels about his mother-in-law.
I can only imagine what their next family dinner is going to be like.
Published on
November 6, 2009 in
Celebrity Assistant Soapbox and Video.
Tags: assistants on TV, celebrity assistants, fashion, getting fired, rachel zoe, reality TV, taylor jacobson, the rachel zoe project, TV, Video.
Taylor, the peroxide-haired “senior assistant” who seemed to hate her boss Rachel Zoe, has been fired. There was no reason offered by either Rachel or Taylor (who Ashley likes to refer to as “the awesomely bitchy one”). Along with Rachel and fellow assistant Brad, Taylor was one of the stars of The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo, which just finished airing its second season. Today, Taylor emailed all her contacts the following note:
After four amazing years at Rachel Zoe Corporation, I’m saddened and exhilarated at the same time to announce my departure. After much thought and consideration, I have decided to take the challenging leap to go off and style on my own.
After the jump, let’s revisit some of Taylor’s finest (and most disgruntled) moments.
Continue reading ‘rachel zoe fires assistant’
I hereby apologize for not being able to resist that headline.
Employees at a pizza-making plant in Ireland recently landed themselves in hot water after viewing porn at work. However, the workers argue that their firings weren’t about porn as much as they were about revenge. They and other members of their union are now planning a protest at the factory, which is located in County Kildare.
The company said three workers lost their jobs after viewing “adult material” and breaching the company’s internet policy. But their union claims they are being scapegoated.
“One of our members received an email from outside the plant and was essentially dismissed for receiving an email,” said TEEU general secretary designate, Eamon Devoy.
Over 40 workers went on strike last month after the workers lost their jobs.
The TEEU said the sackings were linked to a separate incident when the company sent a confidential file about seven redundancies to a worker by mistake.
Sounds suspicious to me, all right. Although perhaps this is a good time to remind everyone to keep their porn-viewing habits confined to the comfort of your own bedrooms.
Having an evil boss doesn’t just hurt morale and your will to live – it’s also bad for the economy. A new study from USC’s School of Business finds that bad bosses cost the US economy about $300 billion a year. That is a lot of money. Where does it come from?
- Lawsuits – wrongful termination, harassment, creating a hostile work environment… you name it.
- Lost productivity – people bitching about their bosses, hiding from them, crying in the bathroom, etc., instead of working
- Retention/hirings and firings – employees are more likely to leave jobs with unpleasant working environments (note: the Evil Empire went through about ten assistants a year. That is a lot of time devoted to reading resumes, arranging interviews, making offers, training new people, and the like.)
- Morale – not just unhappy employees, but if clients, vendors, or customers get wind of how unhappy a place is for workers, they are 80 percent less likely to continue their business there
In other words, you now have a really strong case for getting your boss fired. Good luck!
While the internet is kind of like the Wild West in terms of what’s allowed and what’s not, there is one rule I think everyone can agree on: don’t use all caps. IT LOOKS LIKE YELLING. Anyway, one company decided not only to take a firm stance against all-caps, but to show no mercy to people who wrote that way. Vicki Walker, an employee of ProCare Health in New Zealand, was let go from her job after sending out an all-staff email written with the caps lock key on.
Walker sued ProCare for wrongful dismissal, and won, getting a settlement. Though her email annoyed coworkers, she pointed out that ProCare did not have an approved company style guide. Even though her all-caps bothered people, there was no specific protocol on how emails were supposed to look. I’m sure that was ProCare’s #1 agenda item as soon as the lawsuit ended.
Do you think an all-caps email is a good reason to fire someone? I’d say no, but five or six in a row from the same person might convince me otherwise.
