Thoughts on the Dil Firing

[eaglesfan036 4,603]

Time for a quick backstory - many years ago when I was actually a responsible VHLer who helped the league I was the VHLM commish, and made my own VHLM GM firing myself when I fired Da Trifecta. The reason for this was he was playing an inactive player over an active one, and I messaged him asking what was up and asked him to play the active player over him. He pretty much told me you can't make me and to go away, so I fired his ass. I was pretty heated at the time and fired him with approval from my co VHLM GM who I think was smarch and the VHL commishes. My thought was not being mad that he told me off, but if a VHLM GM has that kind of attitude they should be fired as they aren't in the game for the right reasons.

 

So more than most I understand what the VHLM commishes are going through in firing Dil. Firing people is never an easy decision to make lightly, even if it's just low stakes on a sim league and not a real life work decision. Based on the conversation Dil had with the VHLM commishes and evidence he has shown me, I don't think they were in the right to fire Dil as he did not have the DT attitude. Also, why are we having such a huge amount of secrecy over the reasons for the Dil firing as if this was the JFK assassination? I saw all the reasons and there is nothing bad or embarrassing or anything, I guess people could just be worried about member targeting by pro dil versus anti dil people?

 

Overall, it really sucks we could be losing Dil because of this and the discord mute and other things. He has been a really productive member despite some trolling antics, as his coding and other things he dedicated to the VHL were really good stuff

[Gustav 6,407]

I will always wonder about this one because not a season goes by without some weird shit going on with some team or another in the VHLM...and a lot of it seems to go unpunished. In this case it would have to have been established that the weird shit coming from Halifax/Dil was weirder and/or shittier than any weird shit coming from anywhere else. Obviously it was, and obviously I don't know the details--and I'm not asking for them either because it was requested that the specific reasons be kept private, and that's something I can respect and outright support. That's going to lead to a whole lot less drama, and it also comes with the benefit of avoiding a label being slapped on somebody for something specific. If and when something similar happens in the future, I'd like to see that continue to be the case unless the reason for being fired is especially flagrant or already out in public.

 

With that being said, I don't think that leaving the details out of the discussion makes this something that can't or shouldn't be discussed. It's a current event in the league and a significant one. I saw a LOT of said weird shit coming from multiple teams in my time as VHLM GM...the specific details of which I'm not going to get into either, but which made me disappointed that the supposed prime directive of "retention over winning" and whatnot was absolutely not a priority for many who claimed it was (there were also many who did a great job with this; don't think I'm trashing all GMs or even anyone in particular). I'm aware of a few sketchy things happening in Halifax, but I'm also aware of many, many other sketchy things happening elsewhere...some of which have been met with punishment, and some of which haven't. The sketchy things that I know of were probably on the level where punishment was warranted, but didn't greatly exceed other sketchy things and certainly weren't worthy of a firing. Sure, there could have been and probably were other sketchy things at that point (and it's not my place to inquire about that), but I've both experienced and heard some absolute horror stories from the VHLM that make me less than excited about more teams than just Halifax.

 

With that being said, I think things are generally headed in the right direction (even if people are being forced to go in said direction). Rory seems like a good pick for replacement, and I'm hoping Dil sticks around is able to redeem himself someday.

[Smarch 3,153]

We* fired DT. I’m sure I still have all the PMs with him lol

[bigAL 2,176]

Great points. I know it's meant to be kept secret to protect the dignity of those involved, and I'm sure the VHLM GMs know what went down, but I wonder what the commishes are doing to make sure it never happens again. It surprises me that there's no official training for GMs. It'd be easy not impossible to do a little group vc chat to outline the expectations, a refresher on the rules, and a goal/plan/whatever for the upcoming season. There's so much turnover in AGM (not so much GMs), but if the commishes want to groom AGMs to be leaders in the league, they probably want future managers to be trained by commishes instead of the variety of individual GMs each with their own set of ideas and rules and strategies.

[DMaximus 1,046]

25 minutes ago, bigAL said:

I'm sure the VHLM GMs know what went down

I wouldn't be so sure of that. Or at least I don't have any additional details outside of what has been publicly stated (which is basically the firing was a result of the accumulation of multiple violations.) Since I don't have details, there's no way I can assess if the firing was just or not. Here's what I wrote in the GM chat after this happened: "I don’t know any of the details, but I trust that our commissioners wouldn’t take the decision of firing a GM lightly." Even without knowing the details, I can say support the decision of the commissioners because I trust their judgment. I trust they wouldn't fire a high-profile, active, and contributing member unless they felt it was the right thing for the league.

I hope dil is able to use this as a moment for growth and come back an even better member in this community.

[bigAL 2,176]

That’s a big yikes @DMaximus How do you know you aren’t accidentally doing what he did, or how do you know what’s a fireable offence and what isn’t? You don’t want to tar and feather the guy, but you also have to do everything in your power to make sure it doesn’t happen again. 

[eaglesfan036 4,603]

why is this just gaining traction now lol

[bigAL 2,176]

1 minute ago, WentzKneeFan036 said:

why is this just gaining traction now lol

Smarch does a search for his own name every week, and then I do the “view new content” every morning, and once bigAL comments it automatically becomes labelled as a  thread

[DMaximus 1,046]

1 minute ago, bigAL said:

That’s a big yikes @DMaximus How do you know you aren’t accidentally doing what he did, or how do you know what’s a fireable offence and what isn’t? You don’t want to tar and feather the guy, but you also have to do everything in your power to make sure it doesn’t happen again. 

I do my best to follow the rules of the league and if the commissioners ever reached out to me to have a discussion about behavior they didn't like, I would listen to what they had to say. Add to that the fact I trust the commissioners would only fire as a case of last resort means I don't think there's some thin line you have to toe to not get fired. Most of our rules are clear and are easy to grasp. Sure there's some grey areas, but the commissioners will answer any questions if you're worried you're in the wrong. Because I can just ask if I have a question, I'm not worried about stumbling into some fireable offense one day.

 

Being a GM is a huge privilege and every GM should remember that when running their team. As a VHLM GM, we're many people's first person they engage with when they join the league. We need to remember they are more important than us and our goal is to lift them up. The VHLM rules are designed to support that goal. Skirting those rules hurts the league and the community.