Firing of Jill Abramson at the New York Times

There's quite a kerfuffle going about the firing of Jill Abramson as Managing Editor of the New York Times. The Times is owned by the Sulzberger family and run by Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. as Publisher, who abruptly fired Ms. Abramson last week. There is much consternation about it including accusations of sexual discrimation, both for the firing and an allegation that Ms. Abramson was paid less than her male predecessor in the position.

Now I could care less about the New York Times' problems. I think the attention to this business in the press is well overblown, particularly since most of it seems sympathetic to Ms. Abramson and the discrimination charge. It is said that Ms. Abramson is not taking it lying down.

The working principle for employment used to be "at will," meaning that it was entirely a matter discretion on the part of the employer, and workers could be fired any time with no requirement to justify it to anyone. That is no longer the case, of course, and labor laws are shot through with all kinds of requirements having to do with unfair labor practices, etc.

However, at the dizzying heights of top corporate management, we all know that top mangers are fired all the time, albeit many with "golden parachutes" that are built into their contracts. In fact, I would be very much surprised if Ms. Abramson was not working on a contract, which would certainly have had explicit terms covering termination.

So I would say to Ms. Abramson, stop whining, you're in the big league and managers get fired all the time. Get used to it.