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I went to law school at Boston College. Here's the thing about going to law school at BC: the law school is fairly cut off from the rest of the university. So we don't really care how the school's teams are doing.
Unless they're doing well. When BC shocked No. 1 Notre Dame in the 1993 "Holy War" game, 41-39 as time expired, and Sports Illustrated put BC on its cover, we were all about Boston College. But this year, when BC missed out on the Orange Bowl and then got beaten at the always-prestigious Whatever Bowl Music City Bowl, I glanced at the headline, yawned, and moved on to discussions of the Red Sox Hot Stove season.
But today The Boston Globe reported that BC was threatening to fire football coach Jeff Jagodzinski because he was contemplating interviewing for the vacant head-coach position of the New York Jets. As a fair-weather BC fan, I can't say that I care that much. And as a New England Patriots fan, I loathe everything about the J-E-T-S-Jets-Jets-Jets (especially that lame crowd chant).
But as an employment lawyer, the issue intrigues me. Moving up from coach of a barely Top 25 college team to head coach of an NFL franchise is a big career coup. In much of the sporting world, there is an unwritten rule that a team will let its coaches, managers, and other staffers interview for a job with another team if the new job would be a step up. Firing, or threatening to fire, Coach Jags would appear to be a breach of this protocol.
On the other hand, Jagodzinski makes more than $1 million a year coaching at BC. Interviewing for a new job with the Jets raises serious questions about his loyalty to the university that offered him his first head-coaching position. The Globe's Mark Blaudschun reports that Jags is not considered the front-runner for the Jets position, although he is apparently tight with aged Jets QB Brett Favre. In any event, if the reports about BC's willingness to fire Jagodzinski for interviewing with the Jets are true, then he has an important and very risky decision to make this week.
Many employers face the same situation that Boston College is facing. They want their employees to be loyal, and they take offense when employees show a willingness to look elsewhere. For example, a close friend of mine interviewed with a law firm while she was working at another firm. Unfortunately (and unforgivably), some knucklehead at the new firm left a message on my friend's office voicemail about the interview. Except that it wasn't her voicemail. And the person who ended up with the voicemail went and told on her. And my friend got fired. (Never leave voicemails!)
Employers do have a right to expect loyalty from their workers. But loyalty is not the same as servitude. And if an employee feels she can better her career and her life by looking elsewhere, how can you blame her? Instead of worrying about employee "disloyalty," employers should focus on things that make an employee want to stay: career development, increased responsibility, maybe even more money or benefits. On the other hand, a million dollars a year is a million dollars a year.
What do you think? Should BC fire Coach Jags for merely interviewing for a new job?
