February 5th, 2010
Conan and the rest of us
What lessons can we take from the Conan vs. NBC employment rift. Let me count the ways.
1. The employer can do whatever it wants! Contract? Fuggedaboutit.
2. “Executive” is a meaningless marketing term — useful only for bathrooms, ranks of chefs in a restaurant’s kitchen, office furniture, and overpriced upgraded junk (SkyMall crap) misleading consumers to think they are getting something better for their money. Truth be told they rarely came up from the ranks by knowing the business. And they remain remarkably out of touch with those who work for the corporation. NBC exec Jeff Zucker runs the network that is watched by the fewest viewers. He runs an unsuccessful business by his industry’s own best measures.
3. Employers routinely lie to, and betray, employees. Jeff Zucker made Conan wait 5 years dangling the promise of hosting the Tonight Show when Leno left as an incentive for Conan to be “loyal” to the network. Then, he repays the loyalty with termination after 7 months. So much for integrity.
4. Employers who trash workers risk sabotage. Few of us can get even as Conan did in a very public way — on the air.
Tags: Conan, NBC, O'Brien, Tonight show
This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 11:42 am and is filed under Employer Action/Inaction, Social Justice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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