Current Staffer Jumped Off Bridge

Why? Were they rude as they do their job?

That avatar is perfect for the words you use. Which came first....the personality or the avatar?

so take off, eh. quit telling us you're leaving and don't let the door hit you on the @$$ on your way out!

What I see is a site that'll just lean left.

No different.

Yeah, that $240 every two weeks will really cut it, especially if you're married.

so why are you here then?

now you should note that I never directed any invective at any individuals on this forum, but you on the other hand have directly insulted me personally twice.

it's typical liberal nonsense: you folks can say anything you want, from calling people "assholes", "cunts", "tea-baggers", etc. But if a conservative discusses the idiocy of a bunch of whining punks who lose their jobs and then publicly cry about it, then the conservative is a "douche" for not being "sensitive"?

Maybe if these folks had an ounce of self respect and didn't publicly cry about their "misfortune" when in reality they seem to have been treated much more kindly than many other people, they'd get a little sympathy.

Something tells me the suicide was a liberal. Can anyone prove me wrong?

1. I'm not a liberal. Or, if I am, then I am also a conservative.

2. I've never called anyone an "asshole", a "cunt", of a "tea-bagger". Don't forget the first three letters of the word "assume".

My issue is not with conservative ideology; my issue is with conservatives' increasingly nasty attitudes. It's not just you, but a general trend I've noticed in which conservatives feel entitled to act like complete douchebags, as if being a jerk was a noble virtue.

Conservatism is associated with the South; isn't the South usually associated with good manners? It seems the World Wide Web is eroding this regional tendency.

curtisreed talks too much. He knows the difficulty, but can't help from scoring a cheap political point. Politics is the ruin of everyone. There are good conservatives out there.

If you want to be happy study music.
If you want to know more study science.
If you wan to be happy and know less study religion.
If you want to make everyone unhappy and know nothing study politics.

oh God, what profound observations.

to dirtman, funny that absurd quote. I've studied all the above, music, science, world religion, and politics. but what offends you isn't that I don't "know anything" but that I'm not afraid to say that the idiots in teh article are pansies. Whining good for nothing wusses.

but see, here at current, we're all supposed to respond with sympathy to any moron who criticizes a corporation. "aaah, poor bloke. did little pumpkin get laid off? did hims feewings get hurt because they didn't answer all hims questions? aw, so sad."

One of my best friends was laid off two weeks ago. He got 2 weeks of separation and didn't utter a single complaint. "Yeah, well, I'll find another job. It might be a hard few months, but there are other jobs." He knows it may be tough times, but he didn't cry like a baby and post on a blog about how he was treated.

thank God there are a few men left in the world anyway

Hmmm... ambiguity on my part

If you want to make everyone unhappy and know nothing study politics.

Do not read as;

If you want to make everyone unhappy and you know nothing study politics.

Instead read;

If you want to make everyone unhappy and if you want everyone to know nothing study politics.

never let a crisis pass you by.

Hey, you know if the shoe fits, and it fits. A conservative would NEVER whine about being laid off with two full months pay ANd benefits. It's only sick whining liberals who are not mature enough to understand that a business must berun for profit or go out of business who whine and cry because they were laid off and decry the "injustice". Call the waaaaaambulance.

I actually have sympathy for anyone who is laid off: it's a very tough thing to go through. But when I see this kind of sissy behavior I lose all respect for the great Nellie. Someone change his diapers, please.

I miss your logic here. If we're in a recession, losing your job makes it all the more likely you'd become depressed enough to kill yourself, depending on other factors. But if you have no hope for finding another job, that's s a down place to be.

We're in a recession and there are many people that are losing their jobs. I understand that losing your job and other factors can play a role in suicide deaths, but that's still no excuse to kill yourself.

I'm not defending his right to a job. No one has a "right" to a job. A job is earned by whether or not you have something to offer. Apparently this man had nothing more to offer and was fired. Fair enough, its their right to fire him.

What is upsetting me are the recent changes in Current. A new CEO came from MTV and wants to turn Current TV into a MTV-like channel to boost profit and ad revenue. Clearly, they've had to get rid of some people to do it... and I think that is where this story ties in.

I like Current because of what originally attracted me; how users submitted news and pods and how they participated in the running of the channel. If they turn it into another MTV-channel like so many out there I will be so pissed off. MTV has got to be the dumbest fucking channel in the world...

Yup. And the kicker is, Current had a banner year. This isn't a financial move. it's just a management decision to attract more advertisers. Pure greed.

But if the thing that makes Current stand out from the crowd (the user generated media and short subjects) - if that's gone, how long can they hold on? Who needs another cable channel just like all the others out there?

Dave isn't wining that he got laid off with severance. He's calling out Current for circumventing the WARN Act (http://www.doleta.gov/programs/factsht/warn.htm) which provides companies must give 60 days notice prior to the layoff date for mass layoffs.

I communicated with Charles, the guy who worked with the man who jumped, and invited him to comment further. He declined, due to considerations for the man's family. I think it's all too true and because of the nature of suicide and kind of crude and insensitive reactions people have to it, like we see right here, these things are left out of the public eye.

Do you suppose the family of this person would want to endure the crack pots we have here telling them to get over it and that's the way life is, grow a pair?

And teh $60,000 question: who cares?

Liberals believe in evolution: well it's survival of the fittest. These sensitive whining liberal Current employees are not fit for the hard knocks life will deal them.

We call them PUSSIES where I come from (no insult to the women out there who often have more chutzpah than these sissy metrosexual fools)

Suicide is not a joking matter it is also not an one answer kind of thing. People commit suicide for MANY reasons....not just a single reason.

That doesn't make it any less unprofessional. It's common courtesy to forewarn people of things like this or else provide a severance. Being that the cutbacks are not due to financial constraints of the company in it's banner year, there's no excuse if this is still happening now.

hey Joh, what do you think 2 months of paid leave with benefits is? that's called a severance.

so let me see if I got this straight: they called the punk to HR, he waited 30 minutes, they informed him he was laid off, had him sign an agreement that gave him 60 days paid severance with benefits, but that was unprofessional?

I guess if the company was true to its Liberal values, it should have given him a year's salary, an ounce of marijuana, tickets to Holland, a gift card for any whore he wanted, and a grateful tug of the testicles?

earth to johnraymond: they don't have to give you any excuse! it's not your business! if you want to start a business with liberal do-gooder values, go do it.

otherwise, just learn to deal with the real world in all its brutal glory.

welcome to reality, LIB

News flash: Read the article (http://current.com/http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/11/current-tv-staff-suffer-...). Current is not changing due to financial issues. In fact they've had a banner year.

The change is apparently to woo new advertisers who shy away from user generated content programming. So it would appear they are just being greedy and want more. But the regressive strategy of going back to what every other cable channel does makes no sense. Current stands out because of what it is.

This may attract advertisers but how long will that last of the audience goes away. Such is the anal retentive logic of traditional managerial conservative logic.

No-no.... apparently Current is immune to what is going on elsewhere.

ah, but you see booksellergirl, you are a matureand self-respecting WOMAN and the author is a childish narcisist. AND he is probably a liberal who hates corporations, except when they are over-paying him for what little work he does.

Did you notice his outrage that they made him wait 30 minutes before laying him off?
I've known folks who got their notice by email! "Don't come into the office: you are laid off"

Advice to the author: go get a job at WalMart...unless you are too good for that too

Making a big deal about nothing. It's like causing fear because of people that are angry at the way they've been treated and the way they've been treated isn't terrible....until they start using adjectives that would suggest otherwise.

Clockwork Orange was a violent book, but was written in such a way that the violence was less felt. Ah the power of words.

he seems to know more than you anyway

I was thinking the same thing. He's in every thread I read running off at the mouth like he thinks he's the messiah. He has an answer for everything and everyone. Beware of the person who knows everything about everything.

and those that complain about such people.

It's way in which it was done.

YOU SEE J_Jammer, when one is a narcisist, one cannot imagine how one can be laid off at all. I don't care if they'd have given him an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii, the whiner would have cried foul.
"Yeah, OK, I got 2 months pay AND a trip to Hawaii but I didn't get to go in Al's private jet! I was INDESPENSIBLE!"

You don't want to have a conversation with me. The words I have would totally go against the rules.... especially after your very mistaken idea of what suicide is.

I think it all points to the harmful changes tht are being done to Current TV since the new CEO from MTV took over. He wants to change the channel into a normal mainstream channel and he needs to axe some people to do it...

Laura Ling and Euna Lee were let go I believe...

Urban Gypsy: those two "journalists" should have been fired. The dumb jackasses were investigating how groups from South Korea and China were helping to smuggle refugees out of commie N Korea and they got caught with lists of names of North Koreans and Chinese who might be arrested and killed for trying to free people.

my guess is that the guy IS a douche. And he just got flushed

Look at the view count. We're nearing 400.

Damn. Net, I'm really surprised. I've seen so many stories squashed in the passed, I thought sure this one would get the axe. Oh well, maybe they left it up to spite the nay sayers. lol.

None the less, I stand corrected. :)

damnnnnn funnicus! Burns like that could be fatal!
but i agree, this is a story that should be read, if a source for information we all trust is doing some shady things....well it makes you wonder, doesnt it?

I'm not paranoid like that.

no, Nettle was right. WE DON'T FRICKING CARE!

Not for nothing but Nettle doesn't "kiss up to authority", if anything, Current is the type of website that notices it's major users and gives them opportunities to pursue their interests. People like Nettle and myself are friendly with staff here because we share common interests and appreciate the website a lot. I also have to agree with Nettle that if Current's hiring and firing practices are illegal and concern certain Current users, they should be taking more action than complaining over and over again ...

Also, Current may function as a "source of information", but nearly of the articles link back to another source of information. It's very important on Current that you always look at the source and verify what you are being told, whether or not the heads of Current are "doing shady things".

Lol, at funnicus before his comment got deleted. Did you read my comment? I commented about the WARN thing. I've read the exact same quote, word for word, over and over again. Some asshole just keeps cutting and pasting it. If he's really so outraged that he wants all of us to read it, the appropriate thing to do would be to do something himself.

Just like I said about the brown nosing type, run and tell. What rhymes with stiches?
And I was going to ask you something, are all guys with anime photos gay? Is that some kind of like sign so you can spot each other like the earring thing?

Brown-nosing is not the same as snitching, and I have done neither of those things. I'm not even the one who flagged your comment and got it removed.

BTW I'm a chick, funstuff. ^_^

You're not a total douche or anything

one less pansy, at any rate

It is amazing how many people don't understand what suicide is and why people actually do it.

There are very, very few things that I really hate.....but I hate when people cannot understand suicide because they refuse to.

That's about it....I'll allow my tongue to bleed.

j_jammer, I've had several friends kill themselves. none of them did it because they lost a job. to be honest, i don't really believe that part of the whole damn story. probably a lie told by a whining "former-Current liberal pansy"

No it is not the whole story, which is why commenting on the suicide as if the job caused it is gross in comments as well as in telling the story...including the title.

j_jammer, I understand and agree with you. just for the record, my comments are more directed to the guy is whining about geting laid off without explanation....

Yes. Whining when lots of people have lost their jobs without severance...just as you said already. Good focus.

As to other anti-current reports by the "same user," I assume you refer to me. The other article I posted about Current's regression to the status quo is a story all over the web. Current made it's mark as a user generated short subject media and now it's axing that to go traditional. People are wondering WTF? It's simply newsworthy fact. http://current.com/items/91463738_current-regresses-to-status-quo-programming.ht...

Charles Lawrence is the staffer who commented on the post linked here about the layoffs (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/11/current-tv-staff-suffer-a-major-bloodbath-a...). His comment appears in the comment section. He didn't post this story I did because I thought it was relevant news.

ryanqk, its all tied in. You might not realize it, being a newer member, but Current used to be alot funner. The webiste and channel were perfectly tied together.

There have been many bad changes since then. Current is changing for the worse...

Check his blog at the link above

No you can't; he's dead.

Oh, you meant the other guy.

so what you gonna do, don quixote?