An AOL employee was fired during a conference call with 1,000 listeners, and no, CEO Tim Armstrong was not kidding when he angrily dismissed him.
The conference call was regarding Patch , AOL’s troubled news hub, which Armstrong said would have to downsize from 900 to 600 workers. Though Armstrong took “full credit and full responsibility” for anything that goes wrong at Patch (including broken copy machines) he told his employees that if they feel they’re not contributing to Patch’s success, they should dismiss themselves so that he doesn’t have to fire them.
He also added that he doesn’t care if anyone leaks information about the behind-the-scenes goings-on at AOL to the press, though complained that they were making Patch look like “loser-ville” to the public.
Then toward the end of the audio clip posted above and after his rant about leaked information, Armstrong fired Patch’s creative director Abel Lenz for taking pictures during the conference call.
“Abel, put that camera down right now,” Armstrong said . “Abel, you’re fired. Out!”
Though this is part of Lenz’s job, Armstrong seemed to think that he was stupid enough to be recording the call in order to… leak it to the press.
“That’s why Abel was fired,” Armstrong said. “We can’t have people that are in the locker room giving the game plan away.”
AOL reps haven’t given any comment on Lenz’s dismissal, and he seems like he has better things to do right now:
@romenesko I appreciate the interest Jim, but I have nothing to share. Go Patch!
— Abel Lenz (@lenzabel) August 9, 2013
No comment. (at Old Town Bar) [pic] — https://t.co/juAEHlm6sd
— Abel Lenz (@lenzabel) August 9, 2013
Hey, at least he’s still supportive.
Do you think that AOL employee Abel Lenz was fired unfairly?