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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rknop" data-source="post: 7679963" data-attributes="member: 20176">(Aside: it's rather ridiculous that this form replaces a very common term for "the excrement of a bull" with a series of smilies.  Too much overeager puritanism in this country.)While this is entirely possible, I have to admit that I seriously doubt this.  The CEOs and companies of the world have cried Wolf way, way, way, way too many times for any of us to believe this any more.  Every time somebody high-up in a company leaves, we're told that it's so they can "spend more time with their family", because they "have personal issues they want to focus on", or because "they want to pursue other interests and opportunities."  But, we have to remember Jon Stewert's "Daily Show" fairwell speech: Bulls**t is everywhere.  And these are all bulls**t, to the point that those phrases are all code for the real reason the employee was fired, which is either (1) there were political maneuverings and the employee lost, (2) the employee was flat-out incompetent, but because we worship higher-level manager types in this country we won't say that, or (3) the company was in serious trouble and failing, changes needed to be made, but we don't want to admit that.Sadly, sometimes its true.  For instance, if you remember Babylon 5, the lead actor (Michael O'Hare) left the show after the first season.  JM Straczynski, the show's executive producer, at the time said that it was a mutual decision, and that was because he wanted to take the story in other directions.  All of us smelled the BS in that, and because many people thought that O'Hare's acting was terrible (I didn't, but I'm in a minority on that), they thought it was obvious that he was sacked because his acting was bad.  A couple of decades later, after O'Hare had died, Straczynski told the truth (with O'Hare's blessing for a posthumous reveal).  O'Hare had been suffering with a debilitating illness-- but it was a mental illness, which tends to have more public stigma in our society.  He simply couldn't contlnue with the show.  But, also, he didn't want it announced that he had a serious mental illness.  So, Straczynski did the most gracious thing he could.It's sad, though, because even though Straczynski was obscuring the whole truth, it really was gracious, it wasn't classic bulls**t.  But, because bulls**t is everywhere, nobody believed it.  Corporate america has cried wolf too often.And, so, I don't believe this.  To me, it's way too much of a coincidence that Dancy leaves mere weeks before PFO lays off basically its entire staff.  Maybe, yes, maybe it's possible Dancy has bad stuff going on in his personal life.  It's far more likely that it had become increasingly obvious that the company was going in a direction that was not going to succeed, and that heads at the top needed to roll.  Almost certainly, the "personal reasons for leaving" is just the routine bulls**t we're always told.Sometimes the PR that companies put out is true.  But it's tremendously naive to believe it ever unless you have independent confirmation, because at least 95% of the time it's complete BS.(This goes for internal communications too; if you're inside a company, don't believe the rah-rah or other BS that your managers tell you.  Likewise the crap your administration tells you if you're in academia.  Sometimes it's true, but most of the time it's BS.  In the worse cases, those spreading it don't even realize it's BS.  Jon Stewart was extremely right when he declared that bulls**t is everywhere.)</blockquote>

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