Ask the Recruiter

I was terminated two months ago at a TV station after nine years on the assignment desk.

The newscasts went off without a hitch as far as I could tell, but the next day I was told I was let go without the news director giving me a chance to tell my side of the story. I'm having difficulty dealing with this and really don't know the real reason I was let go.

The company I worked for was "self-insured" when it came to health insurance. They already paid for my wife's surgery, and was now informed of the needed chemotherapy.

The company did not fight my claim for unemployment and even gave me extra severance pay I did not expect.

Is there any legal remedy here? How do I deal with this when applying for other jobs?

Right now, the only work I can get is part time as an on-air announcer at a small-market radio station. I'm afraid my career may be over. I've been in broadcasting since 1981.

Any thoughts on this?

Terminated

You're in a tough situation personally and professionally. Your wife's health crisis would be difficult under any circumstances, and I can imagine it's a lot tougher on both of you now.

No one at Poynter can offer you any legal advice. We aren't qualified, but you might well want to consult an attorney who knows employment law in your state. As a former news director who now trains newsroom managers, I can offer you this much:

Scott Libin

If you are unclear about the real reasons for your termination, I think you should ask for clarification. Your August review and raise would not preclude your being fired for performance reasons in December, but your side of the story about the incident involving equipment doesn't quite add up. If the newscasts were unaffected and the episode was a "first offense," it does not seem to me like the kind of thing that generally gets people fired. Your letter seems to indicate that you suspect your wife's medical condition had something to do with it. I hope that's not the case, and I have trouble imagining that any successful company would jettison a valued employee solely to avoid the costs involved in his wife's medical condition. (Would you really want to work for such a company anyway?)

You might consider requesting a meeting with your former news director. Ask for no more than 30 minutes. I think it's fair to seek a better understanding of the grounds for your termination, if only to determine how it might affect your future employment. What will the news director say if someone calls for a reference? How can you ensure that your account and the station's do not contradict each other with any prospective employer? These are legitimate issues for discussion, in my opinion.

Be aware that your news director and his or her bosses will be very sensitive to the possibility that you are preparing a lawsuit, even if it turns out you don't have firm legal grounds to sue, or don't want to. They might even decline to meet with you for that reason, or without giving a reason, and I'm sorry to say I don't think you have any way to force such a meeting -- short of suing, that is, and doing that would dramatically change everything about your relationship with the station. If you can't arrange a meeting, a phone conversation or exchange of correspondence might be the best you can do. You might well find that the station's lawyers advise it to say nothing further at all.

Maybe most important, I think you need to answer a few questions for yourself: What do you hope to accomplish? Reinstatement? Is that at all realistic? If not, what would be a more reasonable goal? My suggestion would be to learn whatever you can about what really went wrong, so that in the short term you can adjust your job-search strategy accordingly, and in the long run, you can be even better prepared for whatever challenges might lie ahead.

Best of luck.