Mercenary Audio fires employee for blogging

rewrite · Post by **rewrite** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:54 am

Saw this on the local blog aggregator, I was pretty surprised. Anyone else have any problems with Mercenary?

http://www.universalhub.com/node/8009
http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchi ... log_1.html

A few weeks ago, Drew Townson asked his boss at Mercenary Audio in Foxborough if he could start a blog on the company Web site. Boss said no, so Townson started his own blog (on, natch, Blogspot). Blog did not mention Mercenary at all. A month ago, his wife gave birth to their son, he posted a photo on the blog and a co-worker passed a link to the photo around. David Weinberger tells us what happened:

... His boss then fired Drew by leaving him a voicemail that Drew picked up when he got home from the hospital. ...

squizo · Post by **squizo** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:05 pm

That seems like some BS. I would be furious.

Im biting my tongue.

sparky · Post by **sparky** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:08 pm

WHOAH is that true? I always thought Mercenary seemed like a cool company. Does anyone from mercenary post on this board? I'd really like to know if there's another side to this story.

darjama · Post by **darjama** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:14 pm

I browsed through Drew's blog, and looking at the posting times he seems to have been blogging while on the job. I could see a boss being pissed off over that.

...of course I read his blog and posted this while on the job so...

Why hello Mr. Kettle, you're a lovely shade of black today!

Wilkesin · Post by **Wilkesin** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:13 pm

Fletcher is here on and off...do we really need to get into their personal business though. I think they are a relatively small company so there could be other factors at play here...

madtho · Post by **madtho** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:15 pm

In the second link of the original post, Fletcher responds. Worth reading.
-mad

http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchi ... l#comments

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:12 pm

I've just seen another company fire an employee for excessive absenteeism as well as spending company time doing stuff that doesn't serve the company's interests. In both cases, it seems a well-justified firing.

Two sides to every story and such, but Fletcher makes a good case.

I should probably spend less time posting to TOMB during business hours...

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:13 pm

whoah, where'd Rodgre's post go?

Rodgre · Post by **Rodgre** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:19 pm

sorry. On second thought, I decided....eh, stay out of it. No one likes to be talked down to.

Just saying that it's too easy to make speculations and jump to conclusions when you don't know the facts. No need to trash-talk Drew or Mercenary here.

Back to making music....

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:38 pm

Probably a good choice.

ledogboy · Post by **ledogboy** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:03 pm

It's always weird to me with this bizzaro-world blog culture we find ourselves in, that the minutiae of others lives is somehow to be known and commented on by all.

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:00 am

Who cares?

Not my problem.

This is not even interesting.

jayf · Post by **jayf** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:23 am

@?,*???&? wrote:Who cares?

It's good to have info on the companies we get gear from that helps us get a sense of whether they are relatively good or evil organizations. But, this story about Mercenary, at this point, doesn't really tell us much of anything about that. I mean, even when relatively good companies fire employees, sometimes people get hurt / pissed off, file lawsuits, etc.

Relative to Mercenary's policy that prohibits employees from any blogging about recording gear, (putting on my day-job hat, as a web strategist) it doesn't seem super wise. But, it's their business, so no point in ruminating about it.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:33 am

@?,*???&? wrote:Who cares?

Not my problem.

This is not even interesting.

interesting enough for you to bother posting to this thread, apparently!

man, i used to post here and the *other* place when i worked for FedEx Kinko's as a backend systems geek at their corporate headquarters and i was never even warned, much less let go for it...and that's Big Corporate America!

wtf?

lancebug · Post by **lancebug** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:23 pm

Interesting or no I think it seems unwise to speculate on the conflict here. Since neither of the parties involved is participating in this thread it feels very gossip oriented. This kinda seems "Un-Tapeop" in a way.

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Mercenary Audio fires employee for blogging

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