A few months back, in a minute of nostalgic weakness, I signed up for a one-year subscription of Wired Magazine. Today, I found the first copy in my mailbox. And nostalgia was exactly what I got. But not in a feel-warm-and-fuzzy-all-over sort of way. Oh, no.

On page 112, a familiar face greeted me. Tim O'Reilly. My employer of 3 1/2 awesome, exciting, and ultimately painful years. Steven Levy wrote the 7-page article. I remember Steve well. After all, I worked in the PR department, and it was my job to woo people like him into writing about O'Reilly. Steve's a nice guy. So this is not his fault. He couldn't have known. But I quote:

"O'Reilly's company was hit hard by the crash [referring to burst of the dot com bubble]. In the late 90's, its expanding publishing schedule required a move from the cramped quarters in the center of Sebastopol to a brand-new complex down the road. .... By the time the new campus opened in 2001, the bubble had popped and book sales tanked. O'Reilly had to fire some 70 people, about a quarter of his staff. .... O'Reilly admits that if he'd gone public, "I could have given them comfortable retirements."

But you didn't. So you know what, Tim? Fuck you. Fuck you for saying something like that. How insensitive.

By now, dear reader, you may have guessed it. Yepp. *I* was one of those 70 people who got laid off. Am I bitter? Sure. I loved what I was doing, and I was damn good at it. Political maneuvering by my insecure and lazy boss who saw the mass lay-off as a convenient way to get rid of me ultimately sealed my fate - and you, Tim, just stood there and let it happen. As a matter of fact, you couldn't even remember that I got booted. Co-workers later told me that you kept referring people to me (like the guy from IBM with whom you and I were on the brink of sealing a hugely important grassroots PR deal) - but of course, I wasn't there anymore.

I slaved for you, Tim. Long hours, with a crappy salary, no overtime pay and - yes, that's right - no freaking stock options. You know why? Because I believed in what you were trying to do. And becaused I loved the way I could touch people's lives through that.

But it was pure greed that prevented you from going public. You were selfishly pocketing the moolah that was rolling in during the boom, while paying 90% of your employees crap - yes, crap - for wages. The other 10% of course were well rewarded to keep their mouths shut.

And what Steven also omits in the article is that the building of this new campus - this insane, empty monstrosity of a building - drained much of the capital from the company that could have been used to retain jobs. But it sure did feed your ego, now didn't it, Tim?

So you bet I'm bitter. I gave this company my heart and soul, and was ultimately booted with a lousy 2-weeks severance - and only after I signed a legal agreement that said I couldn't work in the same capacity (in PR at a tech book company) for 10 years.

So fuck you, Tim. I hope you choke on one of your home-made cranberry scones.

Wow. I read this and felt so much better about being fired by Infinity Broadcasting in the spring of 2001 as I returned from a vacation. I was locked out of working within 60 miles of the city I lived in for a year.

Dallas sucked ass anyway.

:)

The story is a hundred times more complex than that of course.

I found my bliss in Portland. I hope you've found yours too.

Cheers!

You go girl! This hit a chord with me too. As you recall, I was similarly laid off when Level3 bought the company I worked for and, despite their initial admonishments about how 'we will leave a good thing alone' (which is sugar coated bullshit and set off even the most insensitive bullshit filters) they proceeded to rape and pillage.

I can vouch for the fact that Simone was absolutely passionate about what she did at O'Reilly - I can do that because she passed that enthusiasm on to me.

When I learned how badly treated she (and apparently many, many others) were treated, I decided right there and then to never buy anything O'Reilly produced.

As they say in the better Westerns: screw them and the horse they rode in on...

;-)

Kerry Liles

Hi Jalpuna & Kerry,

Thanks for the comments, guys. And thanks for the vote of confidence, Kerry. You're still the best. :-)

Indeed - I did find happiness. Far from O'Reilly and the book publishing industry, far from California - and right here, in beautiful Oregon, doing my own thing as a photographer.

I think the collapse of the tech bubble produced a whole legion of bitter workers who saw their bosses get rich and fat during the boom, and then got fired with no remorse when the industry tanked.

I don't know - Tim's always had such a socialist vibe and rambled on and on at company meetings about how he wanted to make sure his employees were happy and taken care of, but when it came right down to it, he hung his head low and looked the other way.

His comments in Wired just added insult to injury, and I guess that's what really pissed me off about it.
For years I had kept my mouth shut about the injustices and the pain - but I just decided *no more*. They can't threaten or hurt me anymore.

So screw them. All of them.

Lisa Mann, my lazy boss who would spend days hunched over her Palm, playing games, acting as if she was working (Lisa, I heard the fucking beep sounds. The least you could have done is turned the audio off...), and then took the press releases *I* wrote, and sent them out as her own.

Sara Winge, who turned from a wonderful leader into an arrogant bitch the moment she got the VP title.

They can all rot in hell, as far as I'm concerned.

Naming names. I like that. :)

Truth serum tastes very, very sweet.

we bask in the garden of your turbulence (a knights tale)...you go girl!!! :)

Who knew I could inspire poetry with a post such as this? I'm speechless.

You really should write that up into a letter to the editor for Wired.

Hell, knowing my site's google juice, I might just post up a "Tim O'Reilly is an asshole" entry, redirecting to yours, and watch the google hits fly in.

But trust me: There's not a judge in the land that would enforce that no-compete agreement for anything longer than 2 years. My dad has a no compete for the entire county for doing hot tub work for 10 years after he sold his company. He survived a couple of years before people were beating his door down asking for help. He may be violating it, but there's not going to be a judge out there that would enforce it if it went that far.

So I say f**k 'em -- get a job in PR at a book firm (even if it's a hour a week -- technically a violation), and tell O'Reilly to bring it on. The company that hired you would get a great deal of publicity, and it'd be worth their investment.

FYI, non-compete agreements are typically invalid in CA as a matter of public policy. But it sounds like you're not itching to get back into the PR world anyway.

Good stuff, folks. Go ahead, Jake - post away, man!

I actually had the non-compete agreement reviewed by a lawyer before I signed it - and he just laughed, and told me that indeed, it would be totally non-inforcable. That's why I ended up signing in and cashing in on my severance (however miniscule it was).

Nevertheless - Tim (or rather, his company lawyer - Mark something, I can't freaking remember ...) is an asshole for even putting that bit in there.

And you're right, anymous - I'm not ever going back to the PR world, except doing it for my OWN company and my OWN good ...

Hi Simone, I followed a link from utterlyboring.com. I'm from Germany, and while I can't do anything to help you nor express properly what I think about bosses like your ex-boss, I would like to say that it's great that you found a new job, doing what you want. Keep it up, and merry Christmas!