Heat fire season ticket sales reps

[Chris]

There are too many details we don't know to make a judgement on this.  Were they salaried workers that were laid off?  Were they contract workers, who were simply not renewed (I know a lot of corporate recruiters, who are very similar to season ticket salesmen work on 6 month contracts)?  Or were they on commission, and were they let go now that there are no more commissions to pay?

Ultimately, I have no problem with this.  I would hope they gave them a nice severance package or bonus (depending on what kind of workers they were), but ultimately, this is the kind of decision that has to be made to keep businesses like that strong, and to keep even more people from losing their jobs.  Paying people to sit around and twiddle their thumbs is bad business, and ends up doing more harm than good.  It might give 30 people a short reprieve, but it would eventually come back to hurt a company, and those who work for them, when they have to make those cuts elsewhere.

[nickagneta]

Couple things:

- I don't see why the manner in which the employees were compensated has anything to do with the subject. If they were paid hourly, on salary or via commission really is irrelevant. They were hired to do a job and compensated accordingly. From what I have read this particular sales force has had fluctuations in it depending on how much selling had to be done which was based on the fortunes of the team. To me that illustrates that the team might be aware ahead of time that these could be temporary positions and hires people letting them know this.

In its statement, the Heat said it tries to match its sales staff to the number of tickets they have to sell each season.

``Historically, our sales force has ebbed and flowed based on the supply and demand of our season ticket inventory,'' the statement read.

Since 2006, when the Heat won the NBA championship, the sales staff has had an uphill job as the injuries, losses and player trades turned off fans. In 2007, the Heat found itself the worst team in basketball, and seats were hard to fill.

I guess I'm about ready to blame this whole debate on crappy reporting.  While I can see how your quotes support your stance, what about these quotes from the Miami Herald:

Headline:

Miami Heat fires sales team after season tickets sell out

The Miami Heat easily sold out its season tickets after LeBron James announced he was joining the team. That turned out to be bad news for the ticket-sales staff, which the Heat fired Friday.

``Now that the supply for [season tickets] has been exhausted we no longer require a season ticket sales team,'' the Heat said in a brief statement Friday afternoon.

A team spokeswoman, Lorrie-Ann Diaz, declined to comment or answer questions about the firings, which one staffer said cost roughly 30 people their jobs.

Doesn't sound like an agreed-upon temporary position here.  Especially the repeated use of the word "fired".  All from the same article.

Here here.

Could very well be crappy reporting. "Firing" 30 people gets more papers sold and more internet hits than does "Lays off after completing the job they were hired for".

As Chris and BBallTim have said, no enough facts in evidence to know for sure exactly what happened but it is always the right business decision to let people go if there's nothing for them to do.

Believe me it sucks. I once had to lay off 25 people for 3 months the day before Thanksgiving because the jewelry packaging industry is a very seasonal business and there was nothing to do now that all the packaging was completed for the spring lines.

[the_Bird]

They ain't the "Miami Communists."

No more work to be done...  people get laid off.  Sucks if you're one of those people, but that's how life goes.

Sorry to break it to some of you, but life ain't fair.