Getting Fired Could Be Good

Is your CEO flying this month? The business story in USAirway’s inflight mag Attache this month is about how getting fired can be a really great thing. (Click on the header called “The Brief.”) It cites celebrity victims like Michael Bloomberg, Joe Torre and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who may not be your run-of-the-mill execs, even if lesser known when fired. Though neither are they Carly Fiorina.

Sarbanes-Oxley presents an area of vulnerability for the top dogs to get fired, as witnessed by the recent dismissal of Wal-Mart’s second in command for violation of section 404. And as CIO of course you’re needed to comply with SOX.

The Attache piece, however, is cheerful and hopeful (come to think of it, when did you last read something gloomy and depressing in an in-flight magazine?), so if you are feeling in danger of getting fired yourself, it might be worth checking out the story. Then, too, if you have to do the firing, it may dull the edge of feeling terrible about it.