A buddy of mine and I had been lamenting all the on the job pressures he had been facing for the last three or so years. His company ad been sued and forced to file bankruptsy. There was a massive layoff that came with restructuring. He said right about then things on his job began to tighten up. Now, this guy is 50ish. He's been in IT since I dropped 1000 punchcards on the engineering quad. He worked as an Intelligence Officer in the military up until he got his 20 in the Navy. Then he took a job working with a new internet group that went but during the IT bubble of the 90s. That's when he got the job with this company.

Suddenly, he found himself surrounded by khaki clad polo shirt, replete with hair gel. Most were college grads, the rest were certified by one accreditation group or another. One or two were military reservists. All were 30 and younger. One of them became the team leader, and ambitiously fought his way into management. He decided that the team needed to spend more time together in order to increase productivity. I can distinctly recall my buddy comically recalling their first team meeting in a local bar. Needless to say, moral may have enjoyed a boost, but productivity remained unchanged. But, on a high note, they now all knew each other. The next gathering was the team Christmas party, where my frieind used me as an excuse to only make an appearance. By that spring, my friend was certain he was the oddball in their little serfdom. He was older, didn't have enough hair to gel, and wore real trousers with a belt, usually pulled up to his waist the way pants were supposed to be worn. All he did was work. He had no stories to share about his weekends. They knew he had an ex and a couple kids. Listening to them, he knew who was married, who was cheating, who was involved in which office scandals, and who top management's pets were. Armed with that information, he simply stuck to doing his job.

Then, about a year ago, HR asked him what if anything he would change, given the ooportunity. And, he was honest. He wasn't hurtful. He gave solid examples. No names were named. No mud was slung. But, if given the opportunity to make a difference, he told them exactly what he would do and how he would do it. His 30-something supervisor was livid, once made aware that an anonymous member of his team suggested changes at all. My friend was never sure whether the identify of the anonymous change agent was made know to him or if the gel-haired drunken doufas actually sobered up enough to figure it out. Either way, my buddy's life on the job went to hell. Still, my buddy continued to perform his duties as expeditiously as he always had.

That notwithstanding, the young team leader still had his complaints about my buddy. When other groups lauded my buddy's performance, his team leader used that as proof he was not a team player. He was accused of not using his benefit and expertise to 'mentor' the younger members of his team. When his work could not be further scrutinized, he was accused of being distant and keeping to himself too much. He noted that he really had nothing in common with them but the job. Even as a kid in the Navy where booze was free, he assured me he never drank as much as these kids did. He had no interest in bowling, video games, or any of the other outings they seemed to enjoy. The couple times management gathered them all in a sensible restaurant with table cloths, napkins, and menues were probably the only times he saw them outside of the office.

He recently phoned me in a panic, claiming he was no longer able to authenticate his VPN connection while telecommuting. He and I had always joked about that being one of the signs of job death in the past. But, in light of recent conversations over coffee and one long Sushi lunch, this was no joking matter. His Blackberry had flatlined. And, finally, when he tried to enter the building, his building pass no longer worked. He drove over to my place, defeated and dejected after 14 years of service to this company. In HR, his 30-something team leader told him that the company was moving in a different direction, and that he was simply no longer needed.

I was as hurt for him as he was. The man has a mortgage, allimony, child support, and a student loan. But he was permanently laid off because "the company was moving in a new direction." He was given six months severence, and a generic letter of recommendation. AFTER 14 YEARS OF FAITHFUL SERVICE!!!! Why? What the hell does the company moving in a different direction really mean here? There was no question that the guy had superlative skills. The man is the walking embodiment of the history of IT in America. My buddy asked his team leader why he seemed unable in his estimation to travel in this new direction the company was going in? He said the team lead just hunched his shoulders and said, "you just don't fit. We're doing new things."

As far as I am concerned, this was discriminatory. I told him he should have pressed them for an answer as to what new things they were doing that the kid was so sure my buddy wasn't able to do. My buddy jokingly told me they were all about the business of having graduated high school during the Clinton Administration, that Gerald Ford, who was President when he was in High School, was just some barely known geezer in old history books. In the end, none of this had anything to do with his job performance, erudition, fitness, or skill. His team lead's only justification for permanently laying off a great worker was that my buddy didn't fit neatly into their little circle. He's 54. The oldest of them was 33. He has no hair to gel. He didn't own a Play Station. And, he listened to NPR, instead of the morning zoo.

Is failure to fit in with the corporate culture fair justification for getting rid of an employee? Your thoughts......

Clearly the friend's comments were turned against him. Is it fair? No. I recently experienced a near identical situation. Was it fair? No.

Can this be pursued in the Courts? Yes. However, for all the effort, stain and investment in pursuing legal action where's the payoff ? 

Has anyone in the network succeeded in winning?