OomeHowner wrote:

I am actually a paralegal, but have worked in employment law for a long time.  My best guess, if she is not using it as a stall technique for telling the listeners what happened, is that there are “settlement negotiations” of some sort going on.  While the parties are bound by a contract, as I understand is true in Tay’s case, it does not mean Sirius cannot go above and beyond the terms of what they “have” to do in order to avoid litigation.  If Tay is smart, or at least has good attorneys advising her, she will hold out for the bedt deal she can.  Like in a divorce, both sides give and take.  At her level (as opposed to someone who has no contract or for example, has a minimum wage job) it is not like they make you sign a release for settlement money/severance as you are walking out the door.  Typically, an employee is given a week or ten days to decide if they are going to sign a release in exchange for money, non-compete issues and right to sue.  If Tay has good lawyers, they are probably playing hardball as is Sirius.  In something like this, with her livelihood and career on the line, she will (or should) consult the best lawyers  she or her parents can pay for.  These kind of negotiations can be drawn out for a while so I do not see her inability to say anything on air (TV, radio, podcasts, etc.) as unusual. Until everything is signed, nothing is a given and my guess she has learned to zip it is in her own best interest.  NY could be different but I doubt it - there is usually no time limit on how long it can take to reach an agreement.  It could go on for a month or two, although I see that as unlikely in this situation.  Hope this helps.  It is my best guess.

 
I’ll just preface by saying I’m from Canada, so our labour laws are a little different, so my apologies if this does not apply.  But I’d have to agree.  As someone who works in Human Resources and has dealt with severances before it is not unusual to have some form of confidentiality clause and non disclosure to prevent the former employee from slandering the company.  Breaching the clause can cause the company to retract the entire severance agreement and/or sue for damages. 

I’d also say, given her line of work a non-compete clause would likely be null and void considering the industry.  It’s not unusual for there to be cross over or people moving between positions.  Also given that it’s a niche essentially, with a non compete the person would essentially be prohibited from working for a period of time in which it fought in court the company could be liable to pay during that time. 

Lastly, if this is proceeding through negotiations or legal action, Taylor should really be looking for something as she needs to show she is working to mitigate her damages as a court would look to that when assessing what if anything she is entitled to.

OomeHowner wrote:

I am actually a paralegal, but have worked in employment law for a long time.  My best guess, if she is not using it as a stall technique for telling the listeners what happened, is that there are “settlement negotiations” of some sort going on.  While the parties are bound by a contract, as I understand is true in Tay’s case, it does not mean Sirius cannot go above and beyond the terms of what they “have” to do in order to avoid litigation.  If Tay is smart, or at least has good attorneys advising her, she will hold out for the bedt deal she can.  Like in a divorce, both sides give and take.  At her level (as opposed to someone who has no contract or for example, has a minimum wage job) it is not like they make you sign a release for settlement money/severance as you are walking out the door.  Typically, an employee is given a week or ten days to decide if they are going to sign a release in exchange for money, non-compete issues and right to sue.  If Tay has good lawyers, they are probably playing hardball as is Sirius.  In something like this, with her livelihood and career on the line, she will (or should) consult the best lawyers  she or her parents can pay for.  These kind of negotiations can be drawn out for a while so I do not see her inability to say anything on air (TV, radio, podcasts, etc.) as unusual. Until everything is signed, nothing is a given and my guess she has learned to zip it is in her own best interest.  NY could be different but I doubt it - there is usually no time limit on how long it can take to reach an agreement.  It could go on for a month or two, although I see that as unlikely in this situation.  Hope this helps.  It is my best guess.

Thank you so much for that!! That makes a lot of sense.

A few questions though, in your guess, what would be the reason for her being fired to still be getting severance? Like I'm assuming if it was something totally illegal, you wouldn't get anything? More of a grey line scenario?

This brings up Opie & Bethany though, their firings well warranted, were not what I think are huge deals? Like not illiegal? Both of them talked right away, and would assume both make way more money then Taylo, so I'm going to assume better council? Any idea why her may hold up so much? Sorry for all the questions!!! I just know zero about this stuff, have tried googling but it's all over the map!
 

As far as Opie and Bethany are concerned, who knows how similar or dissimilar these situations are.  If Tay’s problems are trip related, Opie and Bethany may have been fired for bad behavior or a typical “morals” clause, which is way less than the threat of criminal prosecution.  They may not have cared or there was not as much at stake in terms of their media careers. There is always the chance they fired Tay w/no severance, nothing, and she is in the unenviable position of having nothing but threats of litigation on her side to negotiate with.  Hard to know.  I just hope she had good advisors at this point.

Really interesting. Thanks for the info. I still think though trying to keep some sort of engagement (completely unrelated) is going to be key for her to hold onto her followers and demographics, so though she may have litigation as a risk, she is still risking losing everything she has built in the past 12 years and all of her momentum by not engaging at all.

Understand why she would want to be cautious though. Maybe she is waiting for legal advice on what she can/cannot discuss? She said she is going to make an announcement next week, so it will be interesting to see what that is.

Thanks Oome!!

I work in HR (granted for Sales in the Pharma industry so take with a grain of salt) but we’ve had contracts with consults and even full time employees that prohibite them from working for a direct competitor 30-60-90-2 years after a termination depending on their severance package. We’ve fired people and given them severance so I don’t think it’s one without the other (in my experience). We’ve left plenty of people go for poor performance with a 3-6 month severance package under the terms that they cannot work for a company that competes with us. With that said lawyers almost always get involved and in the state of California that’s illegal so my best guess would be lawyers are debating whether or not a podcast directly competes with Sirius or not. Lucky for her they are available for free so I would bet no and I bet she cannot charge for such because that part would put her in direct competition with Sirius as paid for programming material. Just my two cents...

spigirl wrote:

While I am loving all the gossip and speculation and truly want to know what happened, I don't miss the show at all anymore. I just hope that SXM fills the time slot with someone other than awful Jenny Hutt. Get some new blood with some NEW stories!!! I still miss Patrick, already don't miss Taylor...

 
Same- I am SO not into sports but I still listen to his show sometimes. 😞 Occasionally he talks about non-sports stuff and it reminds me of the old days. Extra bummed now that Sally Sean is gone too.

I love how the posts on that page go from 2015 to yesterday. She's so great at social media.

Does anyone know the email address where complaints should be sent to at Sirius?

BathiesTime wrote:

I love how the posts on that page go from 2015 to yesterday. She's so great at social media.

 
Yeah, do they think everyone (I.e. Future employers) is dumb enough not to notice that she hadn't posted shit on FB for 2 years? That every single update or fan interaction is from like the past 2 days? They are really scrambling. Also, I cannot believe they are using the term "viral videos". Every single member of this team, they are all fucking certifiable. VIRAL??? I cannot...

I'm guessing if there is a full FCC investigation going on and there's a gag order, it may be weeks even months before we really hear anything from her.  I mean this is our government we're talking about! lol!
Some interesting things on the FCC and FTC websites about reporting issues and how they do their investigations. 

Burkej208 wrote:

I have no idea what happened with Taylor but her show has not been the same since Kenny left.  The rolling co-host thing just wasn't cutting it.  I went from an everyday listener to a Thursday listener when Rob was on and the one cohost who was the mom.  She was great to listen to.  Genuine, not completely full of herself.  The others were boring and not worth the time.  I have moved onto Radio Andy on 102.  There are a lot of repeats of programs but they are all very good.  Love Sandyland with Sandra Bernhard, Jeff Lewis' new show and The Feels with John Hill.

Well, I really enjoyed the revolving co-hosts but the only one I did not listen to was Rob. He got on my last nerve. My favorite was Clay Aiken because he was smart, funny and was not a yes man. 

 

I didn't like Lori either. Emma was by far my favorite but  I liked every other cohost . I didn't really like the format with Taylor because she seemed even more focused on herself since she only saw them once a week. 

I'm probably one of the few who really enjoyed all of the co-hosts. I could see why some people were annoyed by Lori(the Babette love was over the top, to be sure), but she grew on me. She had some great stories, and she seemed to be connected with everyone. I thought the show was better than it was in the last year with Kenny. He was completely checked out and contributed nothing other than "yeah, uh huh".

Loved Kenny but he became so over the show the last year. You could tell he didn't want to be there. The rotating cohosts breathed new life into the show and kept things interesting. Only thing is it made Taylor's repetitive stories worse because she couldn't remember who she had told what and would fill them in on what had happened previous days--not something enjoyable for a listener. Emma was my fav--she was honest and didn't have a guard up. I enjoyed the others too but not Vinny.