Double Standard

A few weeks ago ESPN dumped some of its grossly overpaid on-air “personalities” in a mass layoff. This set off the expected boo-hoo-ing in the media. How could ESPN put all those nice people out of work? ESPN bosses are such meanies! This is awful! Such bad times in the media industry and those people had to suffer! Upper management is stupid and to blame, and those people didn’t deserve to lose their jobs!

Really? Tell me about it. I’ve been laid off twice and have never gotten such expressions of sympathy. My twitter feed (which has many sport writers on it because of my baseball obsession) burst with heartfelt condolences to those now-former ESPN’ers. Me? Most I got was “sorry to hear that” from friends and family. After my second layoff, my sister — my sister! — sent me a text that said, “Bet you were surprised.” Not exactly comforting, eh? My former co-workers? Most have cut all contact with me after I was booted. Hey, guys, my job was sacrificed to save yours! Doesn’t that warrant a thank you, guys. Guys? Hello? Anybody remember me?

The ESPN layoffs got me thinking. (Freelance work is slow now, so I have time to think. Maybe not a good thing that is.) Everybody can agree that layoffs are bad and hurtful. Losing a job is never a pleasant experience for anybody, no matter their profession. Yet we seem to have a double standard when it comes to parceling out sympathy to those who have been laid off. People who are public figures, or semi-public figures, like the ESPN’ers, amass an outpouring of compassion, even though their cushy salaries and marketable names make it almost a lock they will ride their brief period of unemployment without any injury to their bank accounts. Most will end up writing for one of those sports websites that sprout like dandelions in spring (and will be lucky to last two years). So should we really feel sorry for them?

So, yeah, public figures tend to engender sympathy when they lose their jobs — as opposed to the faceless, nameless editors and journalists cast out by their callous overloads at newspapers and media companies

Politicians, too, single out certain professions for our sympathy when workers toiling in those fields lose their jobs en masse. Like coal miners and steelworkers. But I wonder if those same politicians will direct their attention to all the retail workers headed to the unemployment line when hoary retailers like Sears and JCPenney shutter stores?

Why a double standard? Aren’t we all victims of the same societal upheavals: shifting consumer tastes and consumption habits, technology rendering some workers obsolete, and a rapidly evolving job market that requires new skills many workers simply don’t have. Weren’t we all sacrificed for management’s brain-dead decisions? Like ESPN paying billions of dollars — yes, billions! — for the rights to NFL and NBA games.

And aren’t we all victims of cruel upper management; indifferent boards of directors; and ruthless investment bankers — all locked on profits and merciless cost cutting. Workers be damned! We want more $$$ to our bottom line (and obscene executive pay).

The ESPN fiasco highlights another trend I’ve been seeing lately in layoffs. My former workplace(s) recently laid off a number of my former co-workers (more on that in another post). This time, however, instead of ditching some low or mid-level salesperson or editor, the powers that be targeted several higher up editors and executives (including the horrible drunken boss who bullied me for 16 years). Layoffs have definitely moved up the corporate totem pole. Makes sense — there are only so many secretaries and assistant editors you can lay off before upper management takes aim at higher salaried but useless employees.

Pretty soon those same upper management drones will be without a job. Will anybody feel sorry for them?