Andy Borgmann's Blog

It's 6:30 am and I can't get back to sleep. I can't get out of my head that 6.3 miles¹ away in another bed, one of my friends probably can't get back to sleep either. She was fired yesterday.² And for some reason I can't get the ValuJet crash out of my head...

On May 11, 1996, ValuJet 592 went down in the Florida everglades. On that flight was the son of Warren Lanthem. Warren was the Senior Pastor at Mount Pisgah. I did not know Warren or his son. But understandably it devastated him and eventually led to his decision to transition out of the role of Senior Pastor. Ultimately, Allen assumed that role.

Sometime later, Glenn and Allen went to the Master's golf tournament and they got the idea of starting a talk radio show. It was just crazy enough to work.

In June of 2005, Allen and I sat in Monterrary's Mexican Restaurant. I was a new hire and excited about my job. Amongst other conversation, Allen asked if I wanted to join the radio show "team" to see if we could make this work. I did.

In February 2007 I remember sitting in Allen's F-150 and him saying that he was stepping aside at Mount Pisgah and pursuing the radio show full-time. I was ecstatic.

On October 1, 2007, I stepped out full-time.

And as of April 1, 2008 we had grown to 16 affiliates and a handful more ready to close.

On April 2, 2008, my friend and 10 others were fired from Mount Pisgah due to a "recession" and dwindling Sunday morning attendance.³

Only a self-centered individual like myself could turn a friend's firing back on me, but I have. I don't know if this is because it is the first (of presumed many) friend's getting fired in my life. Or if it is because I too worry about how easy it would be to lose a job. Or maybe because I somehow associate my "success" with her "loss." I don't know. But it got me thinking about my favorite movie In Good Company and what it is like to have to fire someone (warning there are swear words).

What I think sucks the most about all of this is that even in the scene above there is this separation of firing someone who is single and married with a family. As if, somehow it is easier for the single person to take it. After all, they don't have anyone depending on them.

But they also have to go home to an empty bed at night.

They have to do it "alone."

Heck even the terms of the severance illustrates this. As I read it, part of the terms is that you can only share with your spouse, your attorney and financial advisor, and a third situation that would rarely happen. Severance is setup itself to not really allow for the processing of an event like this. So as I (against its terms)⁴ read the letter and tried to advise her on what I thought she needed to do next, I realized just how important our friends are.

I took most of the day off yesterday and just hung out with her. When night came, some other friends joined us, we grilled out and watched baseball on my patio. We talked about the good things and the bad things about our previous place of employment.

We reassured her we all would be there for her in whatever way she needed - including financial support - until she was able to land another job. We are so proud of who she is and how great she did her job. She is in the good company of people who loved and care for her. She, at least, wasn't going through this alone.

(And for the record, there were more than one single girl fired, so anybody who would want to, can't prove who I am talking about here )