"We just think the best place for Terry is to be not here."

Ah, the most regular one I hear, and one of my favourites:

"We just wanted to let you know we've exited John. We spoke and he agreed it was time to pursue new opportunities elsewhere. There's nothing nefarious going on, so we wanted to reassure you there's nothing to worry about. Business as usual."

:|

What else are they gonna do? "Fuck this guy amirite boys? Eat shit Terry!"

Personally I have no problem with politeness, even if it's a veneer. There's a reason cities full of millions of people can function without clawing eachother's throats out, and it's got nothing to do with Law.

This is not politeness but it's a cynical play with words. They should just say "We have decided to replace Terry Myerson".

Doesn't that do a disservice to Terry? The guy's been there what, two decades? They probably are grateful to him for their time there.

Why load headlines with any form of negative language whatsoever? Why plop any mines into future interviews he may have with other companies?

It's clear to everyone that he has been fired. Otherwise they would have let him resign by himself.

Saying "we have been planning for is for Terry Myerson to pursue his next chapter outside Microsoft" is a stab in the back. Not only did they show him the way to out but they also gave him a kick in the ass while on the way out.

"Fired" is such a loaded word. There are many reasons for a company to want someone to leave, and not all of them necessarily "negative."

Off the top of my head, when the oil and gas market dipped in 2014, tons of great engineers lost their jobs because the companies simply didn't have work for them. Or a CEO that's really good at 5-50 startups simply not being a good fit for scaling 50-100 and upwards of 1000s of employees. Etc.

Trust me. He has been pushed out forcefully. Otherwise he would have resigned to "spend more time with his family".

To me, 'resigned to spend more time with his family' sounds like corp-speak for 'had a mental breakdown', or, 'succumbed to alcoholic dementia'.

They're not replacing him; after the reorg the position he had will no longer exist.

I have no idea whether this is actually on good terms or not, but there aren't very many exec VP level positions to go around; it's entirely possible there just doesn't happen to be one that works for both him + management.

I guess at least they managed to avoid calling it his "incredible journey."

Is anyone very excited to introduce his replacement yet?

You don't have to go home, Terry, but you can't stay here.