I dont believe competence is the issue here, but rather a matter of Theo wanting his own guy. That's all well and good, but I don't think its good business practice to allow temp employees to fire long time company men.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

So Theo is a temp employee now.

You are just grasping at things to bitch about now.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Isn't he? Surely you dont believe hes going to make 20 years.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

Whether he makes it 20 years or not, he has a little more rank than just a "temp".

Ok Theo, you can do anything you want in the organization, but do not even think of firing the traveling secretary. Don't worry that he isn't doing his job right. He has seniority, so you leave him alone.

yeah that makes sense.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Yeah, in that situation, management deserves some of the blame. But so does the underperforming employee. Supervisors arent babysitters. Many supervisors and employees loathe a micromanagement style of supervising, which seems to be what you are advocating. Tell a man what you expect him to do. If he doesnt do it, its not your job to motivate him. This isnt kindergarden. Fire him and replace him with someone who follows directions and does a good job. Of course good supervisors will take a more humanist approach to managing and probably apply Maslow and his chart, but its not an essential part of their job. Their job primarily consists of making sure their subordinates do their job correctly.

Besides, management took action in this scenario. It looks like you want to blame them when an underperforming worker isnt getting his job done, and also blame them for taking action against the underperforming worker. It cant be both ways.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

When the Wrigleys sold the team the Trib, there was a clause in the deal stating that Yosh Kawano had to be retained.

These type of deals are not uncommon in organizations when ownership changes hands.

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This thread actually made it to a second page?

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

The traveling secretary is the most important piece of the championship puzzle

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Let's go thru the reasons as to why this guy could have been shitcanned...


There is no way he could have defaced a World Series trophy by tying it to his car and dragging it around the parking lot. So, scratch that.

Maybe he took naps under his desk?

Maybe it was all happening downtown, but he didn't know it?

Perhaps it was all a rouse to get traded to the Tyson chicken plant. I wonder if he switched the Cubs uniforms to cotton.

Maybe he didn't get Big Theo his calzone on time.

We could go on and on....

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no wonder it took George so long to get fired. As a long time employee Big Stein had no business firing him...

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I'm not advocating such a thing at all. I'm saying that guys who underperform don't stick around for twenty years, and if they do, it's the fault of those who allowed it more than that of the the peon they were charged with evaluating.

As far as this particular instance is concerned, Ricketts put Epstein in charge and gave him the power to make such decisions. That's one way to run an organization. But how can said organization expect loyalty when it shows none? I doubt the next traveling secretary will give twenty years of good service to Chicago National League Baseball Club, Inc.

I'm certainly not suggesting a GM shouldn't have the power to select his lieutenants, his field manager, etc. But when we start going deeper into the organization, it just comes off as using power for the sake of using power. Maybe Theo can fire the head groundskeeper and a couple popcorn vendors next.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

It's threads like this that make me hate being a Cubs fan. 350,000 people file first time unemployment benefits each month. Who gives a crap if the Cubs fire the wedding planner? He can join the line with the other 349,999.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Theo and Mitt like firing people.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

It shows a type of behavior by Theo. I understand a house cleaning,but it took a whole year to dump this guy? Like JORR was implying,he's just doing it cause he can.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

You have no way of knowing this. Do you expect Theo to know as soon as he walks in the building how everyone in the organization is at doing their job? Give me a break, this is SO stupid.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Fixed

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Hawaii (fuck) You

No one has any way of KNOWING anything on this board. We form opinions on articles,movies,etc. That's what goes on here,Captain Hayseed.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

True, you are just real bad at it, Captain meatball.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I doubt it wass Theo who made this decision anyway. Theo is President of Baseball operations.. I would venture to guess, the position this gentleman had was under the control of President of Business Operations. Crane Kenney is the heartless a-hole

The CUbs could win a world series and Jimmy would bitch about the way Theo wore his hair in the clubhouse celebration.

I just cancelled my plans for Australia next October. I know we're world series bound. We're going to have a new traveling secretary! Can't be halfway around the world when the Cubs win it all.

I'm surprised Outback Steakhouse takes reservations that far in advance.

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I'm not really too concerned with the hirings and firings of Theo Epstein. I'm far more interested in the way my CSFMB compatriots- most of whom I assume to be middle class like myself- view the employer/employee relationship.

From a purely capitalist viewpoint on the employer side, now is all that matters. What have you done for me lately? Or, more likely, what will you do for me tomorrow. The dedication of years on the job has built no capital whatsoever. An accumulation of good service is completely irrelevant. Yesterday's performance is only pertinent in as much as it affects tomorrow's profits.

The employee sees things through a different lens. He makes life choices based upon his employment. There is- or at least there should be- an implied contract between the parties. I see the employer/employee relationship as a sacred bond. The average employer sees the employee simply as a tool- a means to an end. An end that profits him far more than anyone else. For all the Union-hating 1 percenters out there, if you lived up to your end of that implied contract, there would be no need for any Unions at all.

As this relates to Theo Epstein, he works in a specialty business where his employees are very specifically skilled and compensated accordingly. It's completely different from a regular U.S. business paradigm. You'll often hear Epstein say things like, "We don't want to pay for a player's past performance, but for his future performance." That makes good sense and is absolutely fair within the specific context of major league baseball. But it seems as if Theo may be attempting to carry that philosophy into the larger world and I think there are a lot more factors that must be examined within such a context.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Matthew, Tulsi, and Don

@SteveGilbertMLB: Source: WGN to announce Bob Brenly will not be returning to #Cubs booth in 2013. Not sure what that means with regards to #Dbacks job.


Obviously Theo wants his own guy.

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This is the first obvious casuality of the Theo era. I blame having to watch Ian Stewart at bats this season for this.

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