Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412190082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEAN McNAIR ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
It's a book called ``Merry Christmas, You're Fired,'' by George Allen.
The how-to-survive-a-firing guide may be hard to find, though. Written a dozen years ago by the governor's late father, pro football coach George Allen, the book is available only through special order.
It has largely disappeared from public library shelves in the Richmond area, home to many of the workers that Allen wants to fire as he shrinks state government. But at least one copy made its way to a state employee, who understandably did not want to talk publicly about reading it.
Since he took office nearly a year ago, Allen has cut more than 450 jobs from the state's 110,000-member work force and wants to get rid of about 16,000 before his terms ends in 1998. The latest to get pink slips include five members of the executive mansion's household staff.
Allen laughed when reminded of the book. He admitted that, when he sent letters to 450 state employees last December asking them to resign before he took office, he thought of the Christmas the Los Angeles Rams fired his father. ``It is something that struck me and concerned me last year with the letter that went out. I was really torn on that because of my own personal experiences,'' the governor said.
``I remember '68, there had been three straight winning seasons with the Rams and we were all downstairs watching TV in the family room and it comes on the news'' that Allen was fired. ``Christmas time is always a traumatic time,'' he said. ``It's a tough time to do things.''
For state workers, it may be more like ``Happy Easter, You're Fired.'' The governor has imposed a hiring freeze and is asking employees to leave voluntarily with up to six months severance pay. Then he may announce more layoffs in April.
The governor's father was an expert on the subject matter of his book. He was fired three times by the Rams and once by the Washington Redskins. In the book, Coach Allen relied heavily on football analogies as he counseled how to get over the shock of being fired.
``I went through firings that could have divided my family, even destroyed our lives - if we'd let them. You don't have to let them. The problem is beatable in nearly every case,'' Allen wrote.
``There was never any real doubt in my mind that I would lick the problem. It was just a matter of devising a new kind of game plan.''
The future governor gets little mention in the book, although Coach Allen does report that his namesake son had a strong reaction to his first firing by the Rams.
``George, then a high school junior, was spiteful. He was going to get somebody for doing this to his father,'' Allen wrote.
by CNB