I heard a great story about
a man being fired.
Several years ago, I met a
person who told me the story about himself.
I loved it and thought I would share it with you. I asked permission to identify the candidate,
but he refused because he wanted the whole incident to be kept anonymous and
confidential.
He was a young, recently
graduated assistant account executive (let’s call him Mike). He worked at a small, independent
agency. He had been there two years
without a salary increase and his salary was way below what he could and should
be making at any other New York City ad agency. At the time he was hired, the
going salary for an assistant account executive just out of school was $32-37k,
he was being paid $27k. He reported
directly to the chairman.
Then the agency hired a new
director of account management. The new
director evaluated staffing needs and saw one account that could use a full
time AAE. He told the chairman that he
wanted to take Mike and put him on an account.
The chairman approved.
When the senior account guy
told Mike, he opened up to his new boss.
His family knew the chairman and he got hired during spring break,
before his graduation. It was a small
agency with many major brand name accounts. It seems that for the two years he
was there, the chairman used him mostly to do personal errands. He had never been assigned to an account
except for an occasional stint on a business to fill in for someone on vacation
or to help on a new business pitch.
It turned out that the
account person was excellent, just not aggressive. The client
loved him and everything he did, he did well.
The new head of account management determined that he was better than most of
the other juniors at the agency, so he went to the chairman and asked two things,
first, why was he never given a raise and, second, he wanted the chairman to
approve a $7k raise, to bring him more in line with the salaries paid by other New York agencies. The chairman said
he was hired as a favor to the parents and that everyone at the agency knew
it. He did not want to show any
favoritism and would only approve a 5% increase - $1,350. Apparently, the chairman and the senior
account person (who, I was told, was an EVP) had a big argument.
The EVP told the AAE that
he could only get him a 5% increase. The AAE was happy about the increase but
unhappy about the amount. So the head of
account management, who really liked this account person, told him that he
should look for a job in order to make a living wage; he offered to be a reference. Shortly thereafter, when
the assistant was still there, he told his boss that he was not having any
luck with his job hunt. Here is what happened next.
The EVP called a friend of
his at a top five agency and told his friend the story. The friend said he would see the AAE. When it became clear that he would be getting
the job, the EVP fired the account person (with a wink). He gave the AAE the standard notice plus pay
for his vacation. It came out to about
five week’s salary. The AAE left, took a
day off and started work as an account executive on a great account. The original
agency never found out what happened.
The EVP apparently resigned shortly thereafter.
Within about seven years
became a senior vice president – youngest at that agency – and then became an
EVP when he changed jobs after almost twelve years. The candidate said he owed
his own career to the EVP at his first agency.
Goes to show you can’t keep
a good person down. Besides, if life deals you lemons, make lemonade.
