Martha Stewart chooses her signature phrase for firings
I would rather be told "You’re Fired! in a lound declarative voice 1000X times than to just hear once
“You just don’t fit in.”
[[[[[Shudder]]]]]
Apparently Martha is either a Stepford dictator or a high school guidance counselor.
Perhaps she could say
I’m employing you, but I’m not* in* employing you.
What’s really going to be creepy will be the final episode where they choose the winner and then Martha and her crew begin chanting, “One of us! One of us! One of us!”
Wheweeeeeewweeeee that is creepy.
You’d think doing time in the pokey and watching your stock plummet would pop the meglomaniacal bubble.
Apparently not.
I guess I just don’t understand Martha bashing.
I guess I just don’t care. I don’t read her magazine, I don’t have a tv, and I don’t follow every move she makes. (Anyone read Bill Maher’s new book where he says, (paraphrasing) Martha doesn’t need an ankle bracelet monitoring device? She has a team of reporters on the ground and in the air following her every move…where the hell is she gonna go?)
I’m on the hiring committee where I work, and I actually think to myself, “You’re good at what you do, but you won’t fit in here.”
We’ve hired people who don’t fit in. Guess what? They are ineffective, and don’t last long.
There’s a lot more to working somewhere than being technically competent.
I never understood Americans’ fascination with catch phrases, either.
Whachoo talkin’ 'bout, Willis?
Can someone explain to me what is so “creepy” about that catchphrase. It seems a little kinder and less blunt than “You’re fired!”
At first, I thought it had sexual overtones, and that creeped out the OP.
But also, to me. . .when you’re getting fired, “you just don’t fit in” is just namby-pamby language. The equivalent of “it’s not you, it’s me.” It’s a way of sounding kinder, but it’s really not.
It’s creepy because it’s more personal. It’s not, “I made this decision.” It’s more “You’re just not the right kind of person.” What’s implied is “… to fit in this organization” but this leaves all sorts of questions about what kind of person you are, whether you would “fit in” ANYWHERE in the person’s mind. Really ugly little phrase when you think about it.
I personally would be pleased and proud to be told that I wouldn’t fit in with Martha Stewart’s idea of a good organization, but then, I’d never ask to work for her in the first place unless it was a matter of dire necessity. And I mean dire.
It’s perfect. The only thing better would have been “They’re all gonna laugh at you!” in that creepy Carrie’s mother’s voice.
It’s creepy because if you work at a company like Disney or any dot-com, a big part of working there is “fitting in” to what is essentially a juvenile and cult-like “cool-aid” culture.
In that she is not actually “firing” anyone and this is part of modern TV “entertainment”, who gives a shit.
We just interviewed a bunch of technically qualified people and none of them are getting offers for the sole reason that they didn’t seem like they’d fit in. Although we didn’t come right out and say that.
I wouldnt’ feel too bad about the people on the show being told “you won’t fit in.” They knew what they were getting in to when they auditioned and they’re willing to be made the butt of endless jokes and submit to a giant hideous therapy session wherein everyone gets told, at some point, what is horrible about them, in exchange for the change at a big fat paycheck. I can’t imagine their feelings will be hurt too much.
Not to mention condescending as sh*t.
There’s an insidious implication in these words that goes beyond someone lacking the aptitude or competence to complete a task. You just don’t fit in suggests something inherently flawed, even freakish, about them. Like having six toes or liking Celine Dion. Ha! Kidding on that last one. Kinda.
I think “NOKD” might be equally succinct.
Except, of course, she isn’t either, really.
I’ve been told “You don’t fit in” all my life. Auggh, how I hate the phrase. I would rather hear “We don’t like you” or “You suck” (or The Donald’s succinct “You’re fired”). False politeness pisses me off.
Either that, or “You’re a worthless piece of animal excrement and you should commit seppuku at your earliest possible opportunity. But it’s nothing personal!”
Or for each loser, point, open mouth and make that horrible sound like Donald Sutherland at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.