Yet another school admin gets Facebooked

Oh, it seems like only yesterday I was posting about a local school administrator who lost her job for trash-talking on Facebook.

Well, it wasn’t quite yesterday – it was last month – but there was certainly a ring of ‘yet again’ when I read about a Connecticut school superintendent who had to take a fired-I-quit deal after some of his Facebook comments got around.

Most of what I saw of his comments (on Boston.com and in the Hartford Courant) were your garden variety innocuous, boring, and decidedly immature (for a guy’s who’s heading up a school system) FB prattle.

But David Telesca isn’t job hunting because he didn’t have to get up until 10 a.m. And got to goof off all day (on the Internet, no less), for his first day under contract (when the school district was closed). Or because he said that this would be “the best job ever” if that kept happening.

The problem began when an FB friend responded that every day probably wouldn’t be quite so easy-peasy.

Here’s where Telesca screwed up. Big time.

Instead of just saying, “You’re right,” he decided to do a bit of oversharing:

"I noticed that… my first day on-site involved counseling an administrator to retire or face termination. :)."

Now, I wouldn’t hold the smiley face against him – that’s probably just whistling past the graveyard.  Few of those who have to engage in difficult conversations like this actually enjoy them.  Firing someone, laying them off, putting them on performance notice is not particularly easy or pleasant. Many managers figure out to inure themselves to such unpleasantness, but I’ve only come across one person – a-hole supreme – who actually claimed to enjoy it. As he did when he notified an employee, via cell-phone call, that he was being laid off while said employee was standing outside the NICU with his wife, waiting to find out whether their newborn preemie was going to make it.  After he got off the phone, the a-hold supreme smirked and said, “I really enjoyed that.”

I don’t suspect that Telesca actually smiley-face enjoyed having to tell a long-term employee that there was really only one way out.

But, as Telesca now realizes, it’s difficult to make a private remark on the Internet.

And this remark completely and utterly violated the privacy of the employee who (I’m guessing) decided to retire rather than get axed.

This option enabled that employee to save face and go out on his/her own terms. And it both provided cover to Telesca (maybe he was letting a beloved employee down easy), while also giving notice that he was capable of taking tough, necessary action.

If only he hadn’t felt the need to “talk” about it on Facebook.

I write all the time about people I’ve worked with – witness above my anecdote about the a-hole supreme. But I don’t name names, exact timing of events/incidents, or, most of the time, company names. And, while I do include telling details, they’re details that are telling only to those who knew them to begin with. Not to mention, that most of what I write about took place in days gone by.  All this combines to provide anonymity and plausible deniability to those I write about in anything less than flattering terms. And if a-hole supreme recognizes himself, well, frankly, I wouldn’t mind at all.

But I’m pretty sure that everyone in the Windsor Locke, Connecticut, school system now knows exactly who that administrator who was forced out is.

It would have been one thing to mention this situation to a friend in a personal conversation – and that would have been okay only if the friend was a) completely trustworthy, and/or b) not someone who would have known or cared who Telesca was talking about.  But Facebook posturing? That just doesn’t work.

I feel bad for the guy. In his picture (from The Courant) he looks stricken.  Where a couple of months ago, he was looking at a bright and shiny new and well-compensated job, he’s now settled for six months pay and a difficult job hunt. Most school administrative positions are no doubt filled at this point, and this little bit of indiscretion is not going to look particular good on his c.v.

"He really doesn't want this to be the defining moment in his career as an educator," [Telesca’s attorney, Gregg] Adler said after the meeting…He wants to get it behind him and get back in the field…People that know him will see this as an isolated incident. Hopefully someone will give him another chance."

Odds are that David Telesca isn’t a bad guy. He may even be quite competent as an administrator.

I’m a big believer in second chances, and if Telesca is a good and competent guy, I hope he gets one.

But wouldn’t you think that educators and others who live in a professional glass bowl would be just a tad more conscious of the downside of social media?

I remain continually amazed by the lack of judgment people demonstrate when they decide to go online.

Bad enough when these lunkheaded kids throw all kinds of reputation and potentially career damaging crap out there. Kids can be more easily forgiven their crashing stupidity.

But educated professionals? Professionals in education?

Come on, people. Wise the hell up!