Shawnee Love   •  
May 4, 2010

As I watched Conan O’Brien on Sixty Minutes last night, I couldn’t help but admire the guy. I mean how many people who have been fired haven’t wanted to diss their ex-employer and the guy who replaced them? And to do it on National TV, well not only is that pretty ballsy, but that is pretty much a dream come true in an angry ex-employee’s world.

Interestingly, few people do what Conan did, and I don’t think it is because of the Release document they sign promising (amongst other things) not to disparage their ex-employer.  Which by the way, I expect a few diligent lawyers to be re-writing those clauses pertaining to disparaging remarks to now cover pregnant pauses and speaking facial expressions followed by not so subtle comments about being unable to answer truthfully due to the non-disparaging remarks clause. For those of you who doubted that communication is only about 7% what you say and 93% non-verbal, I’d say Conan’s non-answer pretty much proved that point. I can’t wait to see the lawyers’ re-writes of those releases.

First let me say that I understand why Conan did what that interview. Much like losing a loved one, losing a job leaves us grieving. And in my old Psych 101 class, I learned about the seven stages of grieving:

1. Shock
2. Denial
3. Anger
4. Bargaining
5. Guilt
6. Depression
7. Acceptance

Although I am not a psychologist, I can guess what stage of grieving Conan was at when he did that interview. I wonder if he’ll regret it when he moves further along and stops wallowing in his fury at being wronged?

Whether he does or doesn’t regret it in the future, I want to get back to why more people don’t do exactly what he did given we live in the age of easy access to media. And yes, I know that there are websites and places out there to rant at your current and past employers, but it is a small percentage of employees who actually use them. My theory is that although the desire may be there (and I suspect more people will now feel free to follow in Conan’s footsteps), most employees who have been “involuntarily terminated” (because that is the ridiculously phrase we HR people use) don’t want to burn their bridges. And not because they ever want to cross the threshold of their ex-employer again, but because of the possibility that a potential employer could be watching (or reading).

I mean seriously, who wants to hire a guy who could turn on them as spectacularly as Conan has done to NBC? No one outside of show business (or pro sports) could ever get away with that kind of behaviour.  For the rest of us, as tempting as it may seem to take it public when you are fired, heed Frank Sinatra: “the best revenge is success”.

Saying all that, I give Conan his props. He definitely is not going gentle into that good night.