Sports Illustrated layoffs

I don't think it is a good look to have a pay dispute publicly, via twitter. Especially when it devolves into self-serving bullshit, including that idiocy from Heckman.

None of this is charity. Whatever salary and bonus Wahl signed on for was because SI had their own ideas about his worth, and they thought his work would net them even more than that to their bottom line. That is the calculus behind any negotiation. His deal was probably a remnant from before Heckman licensed the SI name and turned it into shitty content mill, for which, yeah, someone like Grant Wahl really had no place. And Heckman probably saw this as the opportunity to get rid of the salary, as much as he would have loved to keep Grant Wahl at a fraction of the price to put a spit shine on top of the low-priced crap that is now the crux of what SI does.

If Wahl does in fact bring that much value to someone, he has nothing to apologize for in getting it. Your value is your value. It has nothing to do with what the next guy's value is or how much someone else is suffering financially at the moment. I hate those kinds of statements.

As ill-thought-out as Wahl's tweets were, I didn't see anything in there saying, "Oh my gosh, I can't live on $245,000!" He's a guy who has an idea about his worth, and in the past he certainly was able to get it. I'd never criticize someone for that.

His mistake, if HE now considers it a mistake (it's his life, not mine) was taking it to twitter and lobbing in a grapefruit for Heckman to hack away at. If Wahl did miscalculate on that, right now I'd guess it is going to be difficult for him to get the interest he is hoping for from someone else. Even the Athletic, which was showing a willingness to try to wow bigger names, has to be burning through a lot of cash at the moment, and with the uncertainty about how long things are going to be shut down, and what discretionary things struggling consumers are going to be able to pay for, Wahl might find that his worth to someone else suddenly isn't what it was 4 months ago. The question is whether it is 30 percent less, and if this is just a temporary thing or it becomes something that drags on.

 

Bingo. Who knows what she makes and why does it matter here?
Also, Grant never said anything close to "I can't live on this!" He thought it was wrong for the company to try and use the current situation to cut salaries permanently (and he's not wrong).