Do you know someone who has lost his or her job during the past few years? While the dismissal may have been unavoidable, you hope it was handled with respect and consideration.
With that in mind, I call, unsportsmanlike behavior, on the Jacksonville Jaguars football team.
Less than a week before the start of the NFL season, the Jaguars cut stating quarterback, David Garrard. Garrard’s play has not been all that great of late and the team did draft a quarterback as his replacement last spring. The Jaguars had another incentive for parting with Garrard: By firing him before Saturday, the team doesn’t have to pay him a guaranteed $8,000,000.
Doesn’t a team have the right to part company with an underperforming athlete? Of course it does. But there’s something you may not know about this story.
Just before he was cut, Garrard was representing the organization at a Jaguars’ kickoff luncheon with the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce. The team apparently had no problem using him to sell tickets an hour before he got the pink slip.
You would think that someone in the organization would have spoken up to say that you might not want to have your quarterback go from a round of applause from business leaders to a cold shoulder from management.
Treat your employees with class and dignity, especially when you’re separating from them. Otherwise, you be a loser, no matter the final score of the game.
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