AOL's CEO Just Fired Somebody for Pulling Out a Camera in a Meeting About Layoffs (UPDATE)

[UpInArms]

Source: The Atlantic

Well this is stone cold. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong appears to have just summarily fired one of his executives in front of about 1,000 coworkers who were on a conference call about layoffs at its hyper-local news network, Patch.

AOL is getting ready to pull the plug on hundreds of Patch sites in an effort to restructure the troubled project. Jim Romenesko reports that about three minutes into a companywide call this morning explaining the changes, Armstrong abruptly and publicly gave Patch Creative Director Abel Lenz the boot. His infraction? Pulling out a camera, apparently. Here's how one tipster described the scene to Romenesko:

"Abel, put that camera down. You're fired. Out," Armstrong said. After a pause of about five seconds, he then continued the call as though nothing had happened

Then after about five more minutes of talking about whatever, he threw in "and the reason I fired Abel before was I don't want anyone taking pictures of this meeting." He invoked some kind of comparison to a sports team's locker room.

But he seriously fired someone live on a conference call with the entire company ... a call that informed us that no one would be laid off today but that instead the layoffs (sorry, "impacts&quot would happen at different junctures next week depending on the success of finding "partners" for moribund Patch sites.

Abel, put that camera down. You're fired. Out,

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/aols-ceo-just-fired-somebody-for-pulling-out-a-camera-in-a-meeting-about-layoffs/278541/

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AOL Chief Apologizes Over Firing of Worker

www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/business/media/aols-armstrong-apologizes-to-staff-for-firing-of-employee.html?_r=0

Tim Armstrong, the chief executive of AOL, issued an unusual apology on Tuesday to his entire staff for the public manner in which he fired an employee during an internal conference call last Friday.

A recording of the firing was leaked to news outlets and caused a firestorm around Mr. Armstrong, who has been trying to turn AOL from a struggling Internet portal into a successful media company.

The four-paragraph statement, sent to AOL employees at 4:30 p.m. and obtained by The New York Times, said, “I am writing you to acknowledge the mistake I made last Friday during the Patch all-hands meeting when I publicly fired Abel Lenz. It was an emotional response at the start of a difficult discussion dealing with many people’s careers and livelihoods. I am the C.E.O. and leader of the organization, and I take that responsibility seriously.”

The firing took place during a conference call with more than 1,000 employees of Patch, the local news service AOL runs for hundreds of towns. Mr. Armstrong had convened the meeting to emphasize the direness of Patch’s circumstances and prepare the staff for coming layoffs and management changes.

...more...

[DrDan]

1. "stone cold" - it sure is

[stevenleser]

2. Lenz always took photos at meetings and posted them to the company's intranet. He didn't leak them.

I found this out through following links.

I realize this guy was senior management, but this shows how arrogant senior management is that they can summarily fire people without the slightest care about the details.

[red dog 1]

3. Thanks UpInArms for posting this.

I wonder if there are any CEO's who AREN'T assholes?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

4. Another sociopath elevated to CEO of a company

My feeling is that if Reagan hadn't gotten elected, and ushered in the era of greed and deregulation that rewards the bad behavior of these "captains of industry", guys like this would have to ply their trade as serial killers on the streets.

[yourout]

6. Now days it's a prerequisite for the job.

The majority of Fortune 500 CEOs are conscience lacking mindless Greed zombies that would throw their mother in the streets if it would add a million to the bottom line.

[avaistheone1]

20. k&r

[ConcernedCanuk]

21. Sociopaths are persons of choice for management.

.
.
.

They have the dubious skills of being both charismatic and ruthless.

A good read on this is a book called "Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work".

CC

[Ilsa]

5. So, "impacts" is what they are calling it now?

What a bullshit denial of how policy hurts people.

[adieu]

7. I wonder if the rank and file employees

including upper management could just fire the CEO by uniformly and in unison walk out of the company and start work on a competing product/business. Call it BOL or something and do whatever they were doing, but done right and without the supervision of this a-hole.

Let the company try and hire people to replace everyone who left. It'll take years just to make heads or tails of what was being done.

[adieu]

8. It would be a good bet, too

The employees can go to a VC to ask for funding. There's less risk for the VC since the product/service is already a proven entity. They're basically mutinying by starting a new company doing the same (or better) thing without the CEO. The CEO him or herself would be powerless to do anything. There is no way the CEO can hire enough people -- the HR department, the legal department, the engineering staff, the marketing department, the finance department -- fast enough to stop the new company from taking over doing things right.

CEOs have to realize they work in a team, no matter the titles, and everyone on the team can walk away.

The team can start a new company right next door, even.

[Thor_MN]

9. AOL still exists?

Why?

[RC]

10. Good question

They never were that good to their customers.

[Seedersandleechers]

11. A lot of people don't know any better

They got sucked in years ago and I think they believe there is the internet and then there is AOL. Some people just refuse to learn anything new.

[tonekat]

12. My thoughts exactly

Don't think there's any purpose for their existence at this point.

[Posteritatis]

13. The majority of their business is advertising and media, not the old ISP. (nt)

[sarcasmo]

19. Huffington Post is the only reason AOL still exist, IMHO.

The wife and I had AOL accounts back in the dial up days and still keep our email for nostalgic reasons. When you log into your AOL mail it links with Huff Po. The email is free and it's an average email account like yahoo.

[PatrynXX]

14. how to make Yahoo look good

oops. Bonehead.. Steve Case get back here... think AOL just signed it's tombestone

[MrModerate]

15. Outside of its employees (and any unlucky investors) . . .

Has AOL been meaningtful to anyone for the last 15 years?

[MisterP]

16. this was Xerxes's management style, according to Herodotus

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Both Xerxes I and II came to bad ends ... nt

[RoccoR5955]

17. AOL = America's Online Losers. n/t