Whoever thought of this should be fired….
Bad ideas are easier to come by than good ideas. But TRULY bad ideas — the ideas that are so bad that you’re astounded that somebody somewhere thought it was a GOOD idea — are pretty rare.
This one, though, seems as if it qualifies. It’s so bad you almost think it can’t be true, but apparently it is.
“You’re fired” — but for real.
Fox has ordered a one-hour unscripted series that turns real-life company layoffs into a reality contest.
The show’s working title is “Someone’s Gotta Go.” Employees are called to a meeting and informed there will be layoffs, but with a reality show twist: The staff will be allowed to determine who is fired.
The employees will have access to the company’s internal information — budgets, HR files, salaries, etc. — to help make their decision….
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80 comments Add your comment
jewcowboy
April 8th, 2009
2:25 pm
Nothing from Fox surprises me, but how is this even legal?
Peter
April 8th, 2009
2:28 pm
This is the REPUBLICAN way to deal with the Bush Unemployment problem in America today !
ByteMe
April 8th, 2009
2:32 pm
Where’s the “off” switch?
I Report/ You Whine
April 8th, 2009
2:36 pm
After what Obozo does to the economy, this series should run for decades.
The Corporal
April 8th, 2009
2:39 pm
Yawn. They should have been in a union.
Hillbilly Deluxe
April 8th, 2009
2:40 pm
If reality TV is reality, I’ll just continue to live here in my fantasy world. And as for letting other employees (non-HR) look at HR files, is that legal? Just asking.
I Report/ You Whine
April 8th, 2009
2:43 pm
WASHINGTON – Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group.
You’re hired!
Copyleft
April 8th, 2009
2:52 pm
Yes, let’s turn the workers against each other and prevent them from banding together against the screwup executives who made this downsizing necessary.
Why not just call the show “Union-Busting Gladiator Games”?
PJ
April 8th, 2009
2:53 pm
That’s the American way. Make a buck on others misery. Madoff, Wall Street, Corporations, Phoney Internet Job Sites, Scams, Politians for Sale and now Fox. Money is King, Dollar Dollar Bill.
DB, Gwinnettian
April 8th, 2009
2:55 pm
What kind of pathetic business operation would permit its innards to be exposed to the public like this?
ESR
April 8th, 2009
2:55 pm
Why not take it one step lower and show pictures of the family getting the news that mom or dad doesn’t have a job any longer. This is one step lower than whale crap.
AmVet
April 8th, 2009
2:56 pm
It’s only been five months since their second straight b!tch-slapping, but it appears that the dispirited neo-conned have pretty much given up and are rolling over quicker than Larry Craig in an airport restroom.
What next? Inane and agonizingly unfunny Dennis Miller led “comedy shows” on Fox? Oh wait…
Yet the few, the proud, the demented here surely take heart from such entertaining cleverness and bravely soldier on through the malaise of their own making. But without their paragon of erudition and education — CommunistAJC. Who went to Duke. You know, Duke? Duke, the bestest school in the whole of the USA? Duke. Duke. Duke?
But alas the Republiconned “game” has become eerily reminiscent of Chicago Baseball. Lots of promise, at least to the ever gullible, that decade after decade, never materializes.
And for a good afternoon chuckle go over to Wooten’s Permanent Snooze-athon and check out how the aforementioned McCarthy fan is busy making new friends by the score!
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:08 pm
This cannot be for real. The show may be for real, but the company isn’t.
Truth
April 8th, 2009
3:09 pm
They need to just fire whoever is a vocal Obama supporter… Anti-capitolist and anti-small business morons should get the kind of change they voted for!
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:09 pm
Oh, and reality TV shows suck and are ruining our society.
N.J,
April 8th, 2009
3:11 pm
This is the latest business practice by which businesses decide to absolve themselves of any responsibility for firings or layoffs.
In fact, you will find that who will be fired has already been predetermined and that the management WILL make alterations to decisions made by the employees who are supposed to be choosing who will go and who will stay with a good deal of consistant regularity.
That is to say, if the employees decide to keep people that the company has already decided should go, the employer will alter the plan.
YOU WHINE, I work
April 8th, 2009
3:12 pm
WHINER’S dream job – unemployement!
Epic Fail
April 8th, 2009
3:13 pm
Is that how they’re gonna do it at the AJC?
N.J,
April 8th, 2009
3:13 pm
P.S.
I have already witnessed these sort of things several times, and basically it is all a smokescreen. The managements end up twisting the selection process or sets criteria from the start by which the only people who can be selected to go are those the management had already predetermined must go.
Eleanor Rigby
April 8th, 2009
3:13 pm
Step away from “The Hollywood Reporter”. That mess will rot your brain.
ByteMe
April 8th, 2009
3:15 pm
Bosch: People who watch reality TV shows suck and are ruining our society.
Joe Matarotz
April 8th, 2009
3:22 pm
This cannot be for real. How can sharing personnel files not violate the Graham-Leach-Bliley Privacy Act? DId you check the date on that article, Newsboy? It wasn’t April 1, was it?
Paul
April 8th, 2009
3:23 pm
Uh, Jay… you’re not implying any reality show is a good idea, are you?
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:24 pm
ByteMe,
Semantics, semantics
Paul
April 8th, 2009
3:26 pm
(Bosch – prior thread, secret message. Well, not secret, ’cause it’s posted, but it kinda breaks a government secret. Oh yeah, parenthesis means I’m whispering).
DB, Gwinnettian
April 8th, 2009
3:27 pm
And for a good afternoon chuckle go over to Wooten’s Permanent Snooze-athon and check out how the aforementioned McCarthy fan is busy making new friends by the score!
I really, really wish I hadn’t taken your advice. I know I shouldn’t laugh at this poor man, but… (following is quoted verbatim)
Jim Wooten, you know what I love? I love the fact that 4 bloggers are attacking me. And for what? I didn’t provoke them and yet they attacked me first.
List of bloggers who attacked me first: Peter, JLK, Siggie Freud and Jackie.
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:31 pm
(Paul,)
(Oh, okay – be right back.)
Paul
April 8th, 2009
3:33 pm
DB, Gwinnettian
I couldn’t resist. One guy he called a moron, another a troglodyte, another he tells to go back to mom’s basement.
Sad part is, he probably DOESN”T know why they’re ganging up on him.
He needs to learn how to play nicely with others. Maybe Air Force One has an open seat for the next G20 (see? I can make inane subjects political, too!!!).
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:34 pm
Paul,
OOOOOOHHHHHHH, good thinking there!!! Okay, I appoint YOU as the new cyber threat leader – you’re so smart to think of things like that, but let’s just hope that there isn’t a Russian or Chinese or Russian/Chinese version of Six or that Six is a double agent.
Paul
April 8th, 2009
3:36 pm
Bosch
Sorry, man, I’m taking off with the real Caprica Six. You’re on your own.
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:37 pm
DB @ 3:27 –
Really?
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:39 pm
OMG, I haven’t been to Wooten’s blog in so long – and it’s COMMIE – back in action.
@@
April 8th, 2009
3:40 pm
I don’t even know what AJCCommunist did here, but isn’t it interesting that a gang of liberals feels compelled to stalk him wherever he goes, reporting back to the location of his banning.
Petty….petty….petty.
Now up to read jay’s important news of the day.
AmVet
April 8th, 2009
3:41 pm
DB, Paul and Bosch, it is amazing, isn’t it?
And in a way, kind of sad.
Even for your garden variety, uber-angry, sometimes out of touch with reality far right winger, the guy is a work of art.
And though it is arguably close among several of his kindred spirits here, nobody quite begs for public humiliation like Commie does.
I realize it is not that bold of a prediction, but in the next four years, we are going to see a whole lot more of these neo-con meltdowns I suppose…
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:41 pm
Paul @ 3:36 –
DB, Gwinnettian
April 8th, 2009
3:42 pm
Long as I’m drifting off topic (I blame AmVet!), might as well go whole hog.
Came across this: “Liking Obama, opposing his White House”
See, I can deal with folks who aren’t crazy. This guy isn’t crazy.
As I watched President Obama conduct a town hall meeting in Strasbourg, France, the other day, a chilling realization crossed my mind: I like the guy.
This might be a surprise coming from a partisan Republican who also does some work as a lobbyist. (Obama seems to dislike my profession with special intensity.)
[...]
I think the president’s budget will lead to inflation or even possible bankruptcy for the nation. I understand the difficult choices that he has tried to make, and I understand the desire to get everything done right now. But governing is about choosing, and the system can’t do everything at once.
[...]
Philosophically, I don’t agree with the president. He is a collectivist, where I believe more in individual responsibility. He is a Keynesian, where I am a supply-sider. He is pro-choice. I am pro-life.
But I still like him. And I think many of my fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill are stuck in the same trap. They like the man, but don’t like the policies. They hope, for the sake of the country, that he is successful, but have their real doubts that his policies will work. And because they are the loyal opposition, they are stuck, in this 24-hour cable news and talk radio culture, saying things about him that make them seem shrill and out of touch. What makes it worse is that, according to the polls, Americans have much more faith in Obama and the Democrats now than they do in the GOP.
Here are some suggestions about how Republicans can square the circle, how they can express their admiration for the man and even some of the goals of this administration, without rolling over on the policy front:
To summarize his suggestions for those too lazy to click the link: Propose what you think are better ideas, and don’t act like a douchebag doing it. Simple, really.
DB, Gwinnettian
April 8th, 2009
3:42 pm
argh. Sorry I didn’t close the a href…
TW
April 8th, 2009
3:42 pm
C’mon, Jay, of course FOX thinks it’s funny. It’s just one big game to the Republican party – job loss, foreclosure, dead troops…
Midori
April 8th, 2009
3:44 pm
Paul, DB, and Bosch:
you guys are so BAD!!!
I just had to go over to Wootens and check it out.
I’m convulsing in laughter here!!!
Paul
April 8th, 2009
3:46 pm
DB, Gwinnettian
“Liking Obama, Opposing His White House”
Is that like “oppose the war, support the troops?”
Can you really do one and not the other?
heh heh
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:47 pm
AmVet,
I thought you were referring to the new conservative columnist at first. Goodness – he is on a roll!
@@
April 8th, 2009
3:47 pm
jay, I’d be willing to bet that anyone who participates in Fox’s new reality show must first sign a consent form. Who knows……there may even be a little monetary reward in it for them. You know……help them weather the economic crisis.
Bosch
April 8th, 2009
3:51 pm
I’m off to earn a living! Pleasant evening all.
@@
April 8th, 2009
3:51 pm
….and the liberals’ pettiness perpetuates itself.
Truly astounding!
DB, Gwinnettian
April 8th, 2009
3:52 pm
there may even be a little monetary reward in it for them.
Presumably so as well for the company that exposes itself to this public embarrassment. But I doubt the budget calls for a whole lot in the way of compensation, hence my observation that anyone involved (including the business owner(s)) would have to be pretty desperate to participate.
On another topid, be honest, @@–had God Hates Trash or Chad Harris reacted to Jay’s banning by setting up trolling operations over at Wooten’s blog, you telling me you wouldn’t chuckle at the way they’d likely be treated over there?
Psycho-trolls are just funny. Especially when they whine about being persecuted. (Well, until they start shooting, I guess.)
ByteMe
April 8th, 2009
3:53 pm
Hey, jewcowboy: Happy Passover!
Later all.
DB, Gwinnettian
April 8th, 2009
3:53 pm
topid? oy.
Outa here for awhile. Later, all.
jon
April 8th, 2009
3:55 pm
Make the company the front office of General Motors and then let us watch them twist in the wind as career political hacks and a community organizer decide who gets axed and how much they get paid. Then haul some of them up in front of congress where professional leeches attempt to ridicule them for cheap political gain.
Now that would be a reality show!
Swami Dave
April 8th, 2009
4:03 pm
Maybe I am missing something, but the apparent focus of all “reality” shows is creating a pretense fairy tale ending for one “contestant” and a veritable train wreck of debacle, disaster, and rejection the rest. Whether it is a show based on the premise of a judge’s schtick for rude, condensating attacks on those whose only real crime is having a desire to appear on the show……or another show based on the premise of one male having 20 women vying for attention while he callously treats all of them as little more than pets for his amusement……or another allegedly based on the premise of survival until everyone realizes the only “surviving” to be done is within the confines of catty, back-biting betrayals unseen since Middle School.
As for legalities, I suspect that the business & show will skirt those requirements by selecting the “contestants” as those among a group who are slated to be laid off anyway. If they agree to “participate”, they will probably be making their decisions based upon “scrubbed” documentation that has minimal individual detail. (i.e. Candidate A has a salary in the X-Y range……..Candidate B has been rated as above average-to-exceptional by their supervisor in their X most recent reviews…..blah blah blah) For those who do not wish to “participate”, I sure there is the secondary option of them getting laid off anyway “the old fashioned way”.
You can simply chalk this one up as another in a growing number of shows that I wouldn’t watch if they paid me!
-Swami Dave
@@
April 8th, 2009
4:05 pm
DB:
@@–had God Hates Trash or Chad Harris reacted to Jay’s banning by setting up trolling operations over at Wooten’s blog, you telling me you wouldn’t chuckle at the way they’d likely be treated over there?
Absolutely not! I don’t approve of banning free speech, and I certainly don’t attack those who can’t defend themselves.
Now granted, I’ve had a good chuckle off a rant like Chris’s from last night — ” ‘f’ in your soup @@”…….”somethin’ somethin’ this PUNK” but he was present for my enjoyment.
If I recall, AJCCommunist had some valid points to make. After reading many of GHT’s posts, I found them redundant and just skipped over ‘em. Chad? I could never figure out why he posted. It was always off-topic.
I liked a suggestion made by some leftist here. If you don’t wanna encourage, then don’t engage. Liberals, however, just can’t seem to resist the urge. Liberal cyber-stalkers! They’ve been around here for as long as I can remember. One even followed me and other conservatives to a personal blogsite and threatened our financial security and that of our families. Don’t know what happened to him. Could be he’s still here posting under another name which is something liberals are oft to do.
Just ask AmVet. Had I not exposed him, who’d have known?