Would you re-hire Don Imus?
CBS Radio suspended, then fired, host Don Imus in April 2007, eight days after he made racial and sexual slurs toward the Rutgers University women’s basketball team on his programme.
In the public furor and public relations mess that ensued, there was no second chance or do-over for Imus at CBS, despite his public apologies. Instead, he went elsewhere. About six months later he signed with Citadel Broadcasting and ABC Radio Networks to host a nationally-syndicated show.
Imus was a high-profile case, but knowing how to handle an employee who trips up in a big way can be challenging for any employer. “Rebounding employees is generally reserved for the best and brightest, high-potential employees,” observed Beth N Carvin, CEO and president of Nobscot Corp, a provider of exit interview automation.
“In fact, it has only been in the past few years that HR professionals have even been enthusiastic about rehiring any employees, let alone those who have been involuntarily terminated for cause,” the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) member told SHRM Online in an e-mail listing the pros and cons of rehiring top performers.
Rehiring a terminated employee, or demoting an employee who has violated an employer’s standards, is a bad idea, says New York attorney Dick Block of Dreier LLP.
“Why would you [rehire that person] unless you felt the original dismissal wasn’t warranted?” Block said. In addition, an employer terminating an employee often uses a release-of-claim form, in which the employee agrees not to sue the employer and not to seek rehire with that employer, he pointed out. And, demoting the employee can lead to attitude problems, he added.
“Most employees get [second] chances on various types of infractions, so there’s what they call progressive discipline, and that’s how most HR people advise their employers how to monitor performance,” Block told SHRM Online. “When you get to very sensitive topics like racist or sexist remarks, then employers tend to have zero tolerance.
Read: HR reserves the right to rehire brightest employees
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Comments
The question isn’t should Imus have been rehired, the question is should Imus have gone back. CBS was in the wrong here not Don Imus.
Imus had just signed a contract to provide an entertaining and controversial product. He did that. There were safe guards written into the contract for both sides.
Realizing that flying by the seat of your pants doing impromptu speaking is not easy especially when your expected to walk the tight rope, CBS had a clause where they (and MSNBC) were to man the “bleep button” and stop any transmission over the line. They chose not to.
Imus had a clause in the contract that he must be formally warned before he could be suspended or terminated. CBS never warned Imus choosing instead to violate the contract and fire him.
That’s why upper management was forced to settle the wrongful termination suit by buying out the remainder of the contract. CBS’s incompetent managerial practices are at fault not Don Imus.
In the case of Don Imus, he was fired solely for PR. His job is to be controversial, and it’s not until someone truly complained that he got fired. This is all fine and good, but companies feel the need to be PC all the time… but from an entertainment point of view, the most popular entertainment is generally not PC at all - hence a contradiction for CBS. I’m not defending him, but he got fired because he made one stupid comment.