Fired

Our senior publicist (37 yr. Black male), notorious for his harassment claim against my boss (46 yr. Caucasian female) who is the director of marketing and communications, was fired on Friday. His claim against my boss created a big disturbance at Manhattanville and especially within our department. The Human Resources department determined his claims unfounded.

Our final team member, besides me, was our staff writer (28 yr. Caucasian male), and all 4 of us created the public relations team for Manhattanville…The team broke apart after the claim saga died down and after the publicist was taken from the direction of my boss.

The staff writer, the publicist and our events planner became the breakfast club. We were all great friends and ate lunch together everyday, despite all the troubles that were brewing.

With my boss and the publicist not getting along and despising each other with a passion, in a deep pit of disgust and bitterness, the publicist became rather aggressive and explosive, getting caught up in open arguments and disputes as well as openly trashing Manhattanville. Well, I’m not saying what he had to say wasn’t true, but after a while, he kind of took pride in coming into work late and coming and going as he pleased. After his harassment claim, I believe the higher powers kept a close eye on him and were documenting reasons to fire him.

The president of the school came down on Friday at 9 and 9:30 in the morning looking for him and he wasn’t in. I think it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They pretty much fired him on the spot. From what he (the publicist) told me, they said his firing had nothing to do with the harassment claims, but instead it just “wasn’t working” out.

From what I hear, he apparently stormed down 3 flights of stairs openly talking to himself about his being fired and how he hates the institution. Pissed off, he storms back to his office, slams a couple of doors and begins to clean out his office. Meanwhile, I had some guests and we all looked at each other in surprise. I figured he was having another argument with someone, but when I went out to see what was going on, I saw 3 security officers there. I was afraid some office violence was occurring and I ran to someone’s office to find out what the hell was going on.

I was told he got FIRED. I couldn’t believe it!! In a sense, I shouldn’t have been surprised (no offense to him), but I was. Then, I got scared myself and feared for my job too. What if I came in late one day?

It was official… he packed up his stuff, made a scene, and left for good. To make matters worse, I had to DJ for the president’s birthday and anniversary party the following day!