The Way We Were or Thought We Were

Take a few minutes today and read this post by employment attorney John Phillips about some things we need to think about:

In 2007, when Royce Waltman was fired as the coach of Indiana State, he made a provocative statement at his farewell press conference: “If you get fired for cheating, you can get hired right back again. If you get fired for losing, it’s like you’ve got leprosy . . . . Cheating and not graduating players will not get you in trouble, but that damn losing . . . .” Waltman is still unemployed as a head college basketball coach.

Increasingly, coaches who don’t win are fired after only one season or in mid-season. Coaches of teams in conferences that purport to place academics so far ahead of athletics that college basketball would seem to be an after-thought are no longer immune from the demand to win. It’s no longer how you play the game that matters. Was it ever really that way? Regardless, this cruel sentiment of “win quickly or leave” is now carried over to all kinds of employers.