Quitting / Firing via Text Message Acceptable Now?

[vvvmmm]

There's a lotta yard work to be done, what with all the lawns been trampled around here.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I belong firmly in the "it depends on the situation" group. There are advantages and disadvantages to each method and most of them have been well described already.

I think you really have to evaluate each individual/group and situation and take into account what method you normally make for most major communication.

I think in all situations, the key is to be to the point and respectful. I hold no ill will against any previous bands that I have left or members that have been let go.

 

[Chickenwheels]

TL/DR. But you never quit anything.

 

[OOD]

TL/DR. But you never quit anything.

Nah, quit everything you don’t enjoy if you are doing it for enjoyment.

 

[legalbass]

TL/DR. But you never quit anything.

I guess I should never have quit that grocery store job and eventually ended up as a practicing trial lawyer.

 

[minimalist freedom]

I'm an old man.

I remember when Rush's Moving Pictures was their "new" record. I remember waiting to make phone calls in the evening becasue "the rates went down."

So... I've always assumed quitting the band, and/or firing members is something that should ALWAYS be done face-to-face: schedule a meeting for beers and drop the news, or drop the news at the beginning of a rehearsal.

But now that we all carry nano-super-computers on our pockets, etc... I've QUIT one band via SMS, and also had members give notice and quit via SMS.

Is this acceptable now?

I think quitting is probabaly a little more acceptable than firing via text-message?

I got fired via text by the vocalist once. A few weeks later she got fired and asked to join my new band. I said no.

 

[ezra1]

It's ok either way. Like a letter . It's in writing.

 

[RandalPinkFloyd]

TL/DR. But you never quit anything.

That's a terrible way to go through life. Life's too short to be miserable.

 

[Hasty]

Safer? Seriously? This is about quitting a band, not ending a physically abusive relationship with a borderline psychotic ex-SO.

Sometimes it feels like the same thing.

Personally I don't care so I guess that puts me in the "It Depends" camp. I was looking for a job when I found this one...

 

[blmeier7]

Firing by text is better than nothing at all. I was asked to play with a band about 20 years ago. They never told the old bass player he was out. So he showed up to rehearsal in the middle of a song we were playing. Things got physical between the old bass player and band leader. Awkward

 

[ThunderV]

Quitting/firing someone via text seems.......cowardly. Do it face to face, or at least do a phone call.

 

[whero]

I'm trying to think of some extenuating circumstances that might make it acceptable. Are the guys in your band violent meth heads who might stab you with a screwdriver when you tell them you're quitting? Then it's probably OK to quit via text, so long as you're also already packed and just about to head out of town anyway. Other than something extreme like that, no. Don't be a wimp - quit in person.

And if it's a professional gigging band, you should treat it like you would quitting any paying job and negotiate the terms of your exit, e.g. give them x weeks's notice, or complete any gigs you have already booked, or offer to help your replacement get up to speed, etc.

 

[Matt R.]

A phone call is the way to go. Firing via text is a bitch move.

 

[OOD]

Ironically a lot of people seem to be afraid of being thought of as a coward.

 

[ToneMonkey]

I'm an old man.

I remember when Rush's Moving Pictures was their "new" record. I remember waiting to make phone calls in the evening becasue "the rates went down."

So... I've always assumed quitting the band, and/or firing members is something that should ALWAYS be done face-to-face: schedule a meeting for beers and drop the news, or drop the news at the beginning of a rehearsal.

But now that we all carry nano-super-computers on our pockets, etc... I've QUIT one band via SMS, and also had members give notice and quit via SMS.

Is this acceptable now?

I think quitting is probabaly a little more acceptable than firing via text-message?

If someone quits, they’re done. No arguing with that really. I prefer to know sooner rather than later. But it also lacks class and just screams “I don’t care about anyone other than myself.”

 

[electracoyote]

Everything happens via the internet, text/FB/SC/TT/Twitter, et. al.

Everything.

Any memories and expectations of communication protocols and taboos from days gone by are completely misplaced.

In fact, more and more people actually find it awkward, even rude, to have real time voice-to-voice or face-to-face interactions about important business matters.

There is a decidedly impersonal, disconnected feel to our modern connectedness. And most people are okay with that. Only us boomers still remember how it once was.

Personally, I think it's the beginning of very bad things for humanity.

 

[OOD]

Everything happens via the internet, text/FB/SC/TT/Twitter, et. al.

Everything.

Any memories and expectations of communication protocols and taboos from days gone by are completely misplaced.

In fact, more and more people actually find it awkward, even rude, to have real time voice-to-voice or face-to-face interactions about important business matters.

There is a decidedly impersonal, disconnected feel to our modern connectedness. And most people are okay with that. Only us boomers still remember how it once was.

Personally, I think it's the beginning of very bad things for humanity.

Business interactions have be going on like that well before cell phones. It’s business, straight to the point. It was email before cell phones and letters before that. The more business in nature the more chance of receiving information in a textual form. SMS is just the newest medium that has become normal. It’s not worse because it’s faster. Nothing ever really changes. It just becomes easier for humanity to act on its nature, which is finding the easiest way to accomplish tasks.

I would worry more about non-business out-of-person communication. I guess a band could not be business like, but it is for a lot of people.

 

[GreyBeard]

Text message, phone call, letter, face to face. The result is the same. Text messages are the way of things today.

 

[Element Zero]

SMS? Who calls a text an SMS? Lol.

If someone one wants to quit, do it and do it quick. Text? Call? Email? Face to face? Whatever. Peace out.

 

[Mastermold]

I think quitting is probabaly a little more acceptable than firing via text-message?

Makes sense to me.