Jason English
Friday Happy Hour: Unusual Reasons to Fire People
by Jason English - December 18, 2009 - 11:18 AM
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Every Friday, I post a series of unrelated questions meant to spark conversation in the comments. Answer one, answer all, respond to someone else’s reply, whatever you want. Very casual. On to this week’s topics of discussion…

denver-muppets1. When I bought John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together on iTunes last weekend, it was the fourth or fifth time I’ve purchased the album (not counting the record and tape versions my parents owned growing up). No, I’m not collecting them. I’ve just had a knack for losing that CD every other year—it’s my Christmas tradition. Think back on your music-buying career, specifically times you’ve replaced something that was lost or scratched or stolen. What album have you re-added to your collection more than any other?

2. If Stacy Conradt were working for Fidelity and not mental_floss, her 13-1 record in fantasy football might be grounds for dismissal, not hero-worship. Fidelity put the fear of God into fantasy football players across the country this week by firing four employees for tinkering with their fantasy teams on company time. People lose their jobs all the time, but have you ever worked with a person who got fired for something out of the ordinary?

(By the way, after last night’s Colts-Jaguars game, Stacy’s leading Brett Savage 47-0 in their first-round playoff matchup.)

3. Anyone have any good podcast recommendations? I’m specifically looking for something history-ish, but all suggestions on all topics are welcome.

That’s all for today. Have a great weekend!

[See all the previous Friday Happy Hour transcripts.]

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Comments (68)
  1. Not an album, but I can’t seem to hold onto a copy of the “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.

  2. God, I love “A Christmas Together.” My family still has the original LP. We no longer have a functioning turntable; we finally threw the old, malfunctioning one out when, and only when, I randomly found our favorite Muppet/John Denver collaborative album VERY randomly on sale in CD form in a gas station outside of Innsbruck, Austria. While I no longer have the CD, it was around long enough to copy the songs onto everyone in the family’s computers for backup.

    Now, who wants to sing a round of “Christmas is Coming?” I’ call Miss Piggy’s part.

  3. I bought Tori Amos’s Little Earthquakes at least three times although, remarkably for me, it wasn’t because I ever lost it. I just kept wearing it out and mishandling it so it wouldn’t play any more. I finally downloaded it onto my iPod. I also replaced a Mitch Miller Christmas CD about the same number of times before also downloading it.

  4. I knew a girl in Germany – a native English speaker – who got fired for saying “du” instead of “Sie” to the boss. That’s the informal address instead of the formal. I’m also an English speaker, an it’s a mistake I still make. She probably had other strikes against her.

  5. I had to buy Digable Planets \Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space)\ 3 times, the consequence of living with irresponsible roomates who took my stuff with them when they moved out.

  6. The RadioLab podcast is awesome. It’s more science than history though, sorry.

  7. I don’t have anything for the first two, but both “Stuff you missed in history class” and “Stuff you should know” from howstuffworks are really good. I listen to them while I run, and each is usually about 15-20 minutes in length. They’re very well done.

  8. 1. I would say the album I have readded more than any other would be Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin Album’. I used to own it on cassette, then lost the tape and readded it on CD.

    2. I once worked for a company where someone who was hired to care of an individual with disabilities ordered adult movies from their cable while ‘caring’ for them. This employee was let go and had to pay the cable bill.

    3. I still recommend Glee: Episode Four “Preggers” with the All the Single Ladies Dance. Cracks me up each time I watch it.

  9. Kind of history-ish
    http://grandpasipod.tumblr.com/ There is a link on the blog to the podcast version. It’s historical broadcasts from CBS radio and WJR in Detroit from the 40s and 50s

  10. 1. Metallica S & M double album with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Amazing music made even more amazing and anyone who borrows it never returns it with both CD’s so we usually let them keep the one and get a new set.
    My DVD copy of The Count of Monte Cristo is also another of those recommendations that when we lend it out it never seems to come back…

  11. i agree with stacey, those are my favorites as well. both podcasts are always fun and informative; you can learn all sorts of stuff you never knew you wanted to know!

  12. A great history Podcast is “Hardcore History” with Dan Carlin. Fascinating stuff. I highly recommend it.

  13. 2. I worked with guy that was fired for using someone elses computer login. He had their username and password and would login pretending to be the other guy.
    3. No, sorry.

  14. Podcast Recommendations:

    Awesome 80′s Movies (Elizabeth Shue Project)

    The Moth Podcast- storytelling podcast

  15. I’ve stopped rebuying Massive Attack’s Mezzanine, Geggy Tah’s Sacred Cow, and TMBG’s debut album, and just pirated them. Also, every time I lend someone Kurt Vonnegut’s Bluebeard, Hunter Thompson’s Rum Diary, or Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, I have to buy a new copy months later when they never return it.

  16. “Stuff You Missed In History Class” by HowStuffWorks.com is great podcast.

  17. 1. I’ve had the Muppets “Christmas Is Coming” going through my head since Thanksgiving so I’ll let Meaghan have the Miss Piggy part in our sing-a-long in “Christmas Is Coming” if I can call dibs on the Miss Piggy part in “Twelve Days of Christmas” (FIIIIIIIVE GOOOOOLD RINNNNNGS, BAH DAH DAH DUMMMM). AHH, thanks, it feels good to finally let that out!

  18. 1. I’ve only one album twice: Everyone into Position by Oceansize. It was only because it had to be imported and then it went to an old address and I just couldn’t wait any longer.

    2. Everyone I’ve ever worked with that has gotten fired had legitimate strikes against them, like not showing up and not calling.

    3. I’m a big fan of almost everything from howstuffworks.com. Stuff You Should Know is my favorite, but Stuff You Missed in History Class is good as well.

  19. I once worked in a building where a woman in another department was fired for (rumor had it) inappropriately use of email. That’s not that unusual. What’s unusual is that she fought her dismissal on the grounds that she was never given or had she signed an acceptable email use agreement so technically she could do whatever she wanted. And, yes, she got her job back.

    My husband listens to a lot of science-y podcasts such as Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe and Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour. I actually don’t mind the Skeptic’s Guide one. It’s just enough science without being boring. And you learn stuff!

  20. Growing up, I had the hottest girl neighbor. In college, she discovered the band, The English Beat. My crush on her translated to musical tastes, so I purchased Special Beat Service on cassette. I wore it out and bought another. I wore the second out and bought a third. I bought the CD, finally.

    My hot neighbor would tell me years later that she repurchased Special Beat Service thrice as well — twice on cassette and finally on CD, just as I did.

    By the way, I married my hot neighbor. And, yes, we’re very proud of our matching Special Beat Service CDs.

  21. podcast suggestion: Oh Brother (the best radio show not on the radio).

    the Oh Brothers are avid mental floss readers and have even cited articles before (especially on fridays’ “the final countdown” segments).

    it’s available on iTunes or at http://ohbrotherradio.com

  22. Podcasts (some repeats of what others have said):

    -This American Life
    -WNYC’s RadioLab
    -To The Best of Out Knowledge
    -The Moth Podcast
    -Point of Inquiry

  23. Oh! And how could I forget? Two additions to the podcast list:

    -The Sound of Young America
    -All in the Mind

  24. Ive bought Chilli Peppers By the way three times. I just love it and keep losing it. Also three times BTE how does your garden grow.

  25. I was fired once for telling my boss, “Fine!” And, yes, with much attitude and in a confrontational manner. The funny part, to me, was that just weeks before I had told him to go F himself and didn’t get fired for that. (Oh, yeah, I would have fired me too.) Fortunately, I am much older and wiser and have learned to deal with situations more appropriately now than when I was 18.

  26. 1) No joke, I’ve had to replace one or more of my Ramones albums every year or so…my first CD I played so many times it wouldn’t start anymore (is that even possible?). I’ve also had to replace the “Best of Blondie” album. Now I just download the songs and put them together on my iPod as an album rather than shell out the bucks, but it’s a good story.

    2)Two awkward firing stories. One was when I worked at an ice cream place in college (with local HS students, awesome) and one loose cannon was let go after calling his supervisor a “b*tch”. I agree with it, but it was the first time I’d seen that (coming from working in a restaurant, I was used to crazy things like that with minimal reprocussions). Second was an asst supervisor who was let go after a hit and run with another employee’s car at another branch of our company. She’d panicked, driven away and the cameras caught her and she was severely punished. That was a very ‘omg, really?’ moment for us.

  27. 1. I have purchased Tool Opiate and Radiohead The Bends at least 3 times each. I seem to lose those two albums.

    2. I worked at an NBC affiliate and someone got fired for talking trash about the station… completely forgetting he signed a non-disclosure agreement upon hiring.

    3. Can’t help ya there.

  28. I am currently listening to:

    Dan Carlin’s “Hardcore History”
    Dan Carlin’s “Common Sense”
    Tony Cox’s “Binge Thinking History”
    Lars Brownworth “12 Byzantine Rulers”
    Lars Brownworth “Norman Centuries”

    All are witty and entertaining, non-ideological listening. All are on both iTunes and Podcast Alley. I record all 5 (along with some NPR stuff) because my commute allows me to burn through them faster than they can be produced.
    Podcast Alley is an easier place to search for new stuff than iTunes.

    Oh, and I bought the album, 8-track, cassette and CD of most of the Beatles, Stones and Allman Brothers recordings. Some of the early stuff, I bought the mono first and then the stereo albums later.

  29. Great podcast – Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. Once a month (maybe) worth waiting for.

  30. 3. Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History

  31. The White album and Sgt. Pepper’s, but it was more of a format change – same goes for Queen I and Queen II

  32. I keep buying the Clash’s London Calling Album. Mostly, I don’t loose it, I just need it on the next format. First in 1985 on LP, it was the summer between 5th and 6th grade. I purloined this first copy from a friend’s older sister who had gone off to college and *gasp* left it behind. Then on tape, hey, everyone had a walkman. Then I had to have it on CD. I lent the CD to a “friend” who had it forever. I then bought another copy just before he returned it. Yeah, I don’t speak to him anymore. Of course it is now on my ipod. I still listen to it.

  33. 1) The two albums I’ve purchased over and over are Peter Gabriel’s “Passion” (soundtrack to “The Last Temptation of Christ”) and Guns N Roses “Lies.” I always either lose or severely scratch those two. And, I can’t seem to live without either.

    2) My brother was once fired from my father’s business by my stepmother for being ONE minute late – even though he was outside, in front of the building in plain view, finishing a cigarette. She’s just a b*tch.

  34. “The Classic Tales Podcast” is the greatest thing going. It’s not history exactly, but he does many historic short stories and novels, all unadbridged (e.g. he is currently doing “The Cricket on the Hearth” by Charles Dickens in three parts). General length of each episode is 40 min to an hour or so. Very professionally done and well acted/voiced. Better than most audiobooks I’ve purchased or borrowed.

  35. Once, while managing an Off Broadway show, I was alone in the office on Thanksgiving (a show day, while the other office people were off) and was surprised to see a fax come through on the machine…it came from the show’s producer, firing my bosses.

    Not knowing what to do, I put the fax back on the machine, closed up the office for the day, and went home, deciding to let the bosses find their notice upon their arrival the following Monday.

  36. The first LP/CD/whatever that comes to my mind is Eric Satie, “Velvet Gentleman” – it was always seemingly impossible to find, well I found it! I used to play it for my little daughter Emma to fall asleep to. Very strange, relaxing music.
    My ex-wife got fired (or mobbed) – because she presumably came a day late from her Christmas visit to USA. .
    I supposedly was supposed to call and make up an excuse but I didn’t- why? Well, the day before she told me to pack all her possesions and send them to America – she wasn’t coming back. I guess that distracted me…I understand women a little better now – but not much. LOL. PS. She would have been mobbed out anyway…so it really didn’t matter. I sure felt bad for a while tho,

  37. I don’t have any history podcasts, but I also highly recommend The Moth. The New Yorker:Fiction, NPR’s Wait Wait and This American Life are also great. If you’re a music buff, the All Songs Considered and Live Concerts from All Songs are entertaining.

  38. 1. Tossup between two albums: Blue Murder’s self titled debut and Thunder “Backstreet Symphony”. Wore both out on cassette, replaced with another cassette and then upgraded to CD.

  39. Two awkward firing stories. First story- I had to fire a young woman who worked for me as she was apparently the source if you wanted to get some pot at our company. Second story- a VERY senior executive in our company just disappeared one day with no public explanation. Story eventually comes out that porn was found on his company computer and since we have a zero tolerance policy he had to be escorted out immediately.

  40. 1) Tool – Aenima has been replaced on CD 3 or 4 times now. I’ve replaced others that were lost/stolen on itunes, though I’m still a little apprehensive not having the tangible format.

    2) I once worked as a busboy at a restaurant in Seattle that like many other restaurants had a good deal of drug use amongst the kitchen staff. Generally, that use was kept out of the workplace though. We had two dishwashers fired on the spot when our dining room manager went down to the storeroom and found them smoking a joint during their shift. Silly dishwashers, that’s what the dumpster area is for.

  41. 1. I have purchased Counting Crows: August and Everything after at least three times. I bought the first one new and lost it. I bought it twice at Half Price Books and lost both of those. The last time I gave up and bought it as MP3′s online.

  42. 1. Yes, I’m going to go with various Bealtes albums here…besides the tape to cd replacements, I remember playing and scratching Revolver, Rubber Soul, and one disc of the White Album so badly that they’ve had to be replaced.
    2. I was in the Navy, so I’d so the most pitiful reason I’ve seen someone get fired is because their myspace had them listed as “gay.”

  43. I worked at IBM in the early 80′s, and I can recall several people being fired for things that would have won them praise at many other companies. One guy was fired for selling dumb terminals for their smaller system that he told IBM was for their larger system — same terminals. The wait time for the terminals was about twice as long if they were to be used on the larger system (?), and he was fired for “breaking sequential delivery.” I knew another guy who was fired for “brokering” their old system when he sold them a new system. IBM was VERY CLEAR on what the rules were, and we knew these were fireable offenses. It was just a shock to see people lose their livelihood for something that most companies considered “taking care of the customer.” Still, I have to say that IBM’s ethics were one of the reasons I joined the company and one of the resons I stayed there for almost 20 years.

  44. 1.Michael W. Smith’s 1st Christmas Album–so lush and peaceful, and by far has the most poignant, “Silent Night,” ever. It’s 1:41 of all of the mixed feelings about Christmastime for me: joy, wonder, mystery, bittersweetness … all in one tiny instrumental.
    2. I was fired in the 80′s from Sonic after an hour and a half, because I couldn’t rollerskate very well. :)

  45. AC/DC’s Back in Black is the album/tape/CD that I have replaced many many times. It’s either been stolen at parties as a teenager, lost or simply worn out over the years. Plus, every time there’s a cool new AC/DC box set they include Back in Black. Why? Cuz it’s the best album they ever released, that’s why.

  46. Coverville is a fantastic podcast.

  47. Podcasts – I really enjoy – The Bugle – the Times UK
    with John Oliver of the Daily Show and .. the Brit I don’t know..kind of a UK audio podcast-like Daily show thing-y(on itunes)

  48. I’ve replaced my Elliott Smith – Either/Or album no fewer than 3 times. The first CD I ever bought was Black Sabbath – Paranoid. My entire music collections were stolen twice and both times, that was the album in the CD player. Strange, since i seldom listened to it.

    My current co-worker was telling me that when he was 18, he found a job delivering pizzas. His mom didn’t want people seeing her son doing a job she felt was demeaning, so she called to complain. The pizza place said they wouldn’t fire him for that, so she called back and claimed he was driving recklessly. He was subsequently fired.

  49. OMG -Jason we were separated at birth!! I just bought my umpteenth copy of JD & the Muppet’s too. It just isn’t Christmas without Ms. Piggy and her “5 Gold Rings…bah dum dum dum”. I know other members of my family have purchased it more than once too but it’s that album at Christmas and Arlo Guthrie & Alice’s Restaurant (way before my time but it’s a family thing)at Thanksgiving that I really need to feel the holiday spirit.

  50. 3 – I’ve got to give a plug to my friend Mike’s comic book podcast “Views From the Longbox” He’s got a fun mix of encyclopedic knowledge, irreverence and strong opinions that make for a fun listen.

    1 – I’ve replaced PJ Harvey’s To Bring You My Love about three times. Oddly enough, they tended to reappear and now I have two copies.

    I also went through 2 cassette and 2 cd copies of Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde. Cassettes do to wear and tear making them unlistenable, the cd’s due to loss.

    2 – I was once fired for giving my two week’s notice.

  51. What album have you re-added to your collection more than any other?
    Joni Mitchell’s “Blue”
    and
    They Might Be Giants “Flood”
    Finally had to quit buying both because they disappeared too often.

  52. Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas. EVERY SINGLE YEAR. We get the tree, and my mom says, \Oh, I should get my Aaron Neville CD out! I put it somewhere safe so I wouldn’t lose it this year…\ The people who move into our house after us are going to find like twelve copies of that CD.

  53. A hole-in-the-wall printshop fired me twice for coming in early. Not before they opened, just before they were ready. I gave notice after the manager barked at me for trying to make small talk about how the work was coming along. Yes, I should have just come in early again and been fired so that I could collect unemployment.

  54. You should really listen to The Memory Palace for some short anecdotes. They’re obscure bits of history, beautifully produced by NPR’s Nate DiMeo.
    http://thememorypalace.us/

  55. 3. Uhh Yeah Dude

    Definitely a top 5 podcasts.

  56. 1a. I have an inordinate number of vinyl copies of “Heaven Tonight” by Cheap Trick only because I found a whole stack at Goodwill and bought the lot, with the intent to mix-and-match the sleeves, inserts and discs to make 3 or 4 really nice copies and give them to people.

    1b. I’ve actually purchased Paul Simon’s “Graceland” several times over the years (including when my folks bought me the record back in ’86). Kind of an odd repeat buy, having once been such a metalhead and, later, punk rocker.

    1c. With only a couple duplicates, I somehow ended up with almost everything Rush ever did between 1974 and 1985. Bought some used records, bought several cassettes and one CD, “borrowed” a few LPs from my brother sometime around 1991…uh…oops…

    1d. I SHOULD just buy ten copies of “Alcatraz” by The Mr. T Experience and get it over with. I cannot hold on to that album.

  57. 1. I have had to replace the Forest Gump soundtrack at least 5 times. It keeps “walking away” (getting stolen).

    2. (a) A friend of mine was driving a cab, and decided to go out with a bang. He stole the cab to go on a drug run from New York to Virginia.

    But the kick is… he wasn’t fired!!! They actually kept him on as an indentured servant. He had to work without pay until he earned them enough money to make up for what he lost the cab company… and he had to share his haul. ;-)

    2.(b) I once got fired because an ex employee decided she was going to rob the pizza place I was waitressing at during my shift. She attacked me, I called the police, and I got fired because they thought she was going to come back for revenge and “finish the job”. Legal, probably not. But I was young and didn’t know what to do to fight the termination.

  58. I’ve recently started listening to The Best Show on WFMU. Very funny and sarcastic call-in show. You can check it out at http://www.friendsoftom.com.

  59. I lose a Warren Zevon album every two years or so. I’m not sure if I’ve lost the same one twice.

  60. 1. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John.. my best friend accidentally dropped the first record of the two record set. It was 1973 or 4 and it wasn’t my album, it was my big brothers. I felt REALLY BAD about it (I was only 8 at the time, but I felt so guilty, I couldn’t stop crying when I apologized to him). A few weeks after the “incident”, I bought him a new copy with my allowance money I saved up for a while. And then I bought it for myself a few weeks after that with birthday money (I was afraid to go near his record collection after that). I bought it not once or twice but THREE TIMES on CD (a couple of nasty now ex-boyfriends took it as they left my life). I just recently bought it again on iTunes.. because my last CD copy just “magically” disappeared.. my guess is that it’s in my son’s blackhole of a room.

    2. I don’t know how weird this is.. but both my husband AND my best friend were fired from jobs for finding out within a few days of being hired that the person they replaced had stolen large amounts of money from the companies… you would THINK the companies would have been happy to know about the embezzlements.. right?

  61. Podcast: BBC History Magazine

  62. Wow,I have had to replace so much music over the years. Ex-wives, their kids, and four brothers, and all of their assorted friends have been hard on my music collection. Most often replaced has been AC/DC Back in Black. Funny how with all of their rap and horrible radio pop [GaGa?] that they always take my classic rock.

  63. The first Disturbed album I have lost or had stolen from me a total of 4 times. I gave up and never bought another copy.

  64. Eagles ’71 to ’75. I’ve worn out 8 tracks, LP’s and cassettes. I’ve melted one cd. Thank goodness for the iPod and redundant backups.

    I once had to fire a hotel front desk member who moved into the hotel and thought no one would notice.

  65. As a 15-year Fidelity veteran, I wanted to point out that the employee in question wasn’t “tinkering with his team”. He was running four leagues. Also, the company is very, very, very clear that gambling in work is absolutely verboten, so for him to claim that he thought it would be OK to run a $20 league on company equipment during company time just makes him stupid. (And I’m for anything that reduces the number of stupid people I work with.)

  66. podcast: stuff you missed in history class from howstuffworks.com

    its along the lines of revisionist history, and the girls who host it are pretty fun too.

  67. I don’t get rid of my music. I must be strange but I still have all my cds from high school except for the ones bmg sent me by mistake and I later sold. (I forgot to check the box that says no I don’t want the Flintstones movie soundtrack!)

    The only thing that bugs me is how songs from old cds added to my ipod are so damn quiet I have to crank up the volume and the next song that comes on is something new so of course it kills my ears!

    I have been fired for being a good employee who was never late only called in sick once (legitimately) always did what I was told, and for being honest and liked by both coworkers and customers. (Don’t ever work at Target!)

    Podcast feeds don’t work! Occasionally I listen to ones you can just right click on but I haven’t got a favorite.

  68. I have had to replace my entire music collection some 22,000 songs by various artists 2 times now thanks to amateur computer repair. Always backup your music! A lesson sorely learned, twice.

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