Ed Werder’s week went from disappointing to uncomfortable after the company that laid him off asked him to do work for them the following day.
Werder was one of many ESPN reporters who learned last week that he was losing his job. The longtime reporter joined “The Doomsday Podcast” for an interview and said that ESPN added insult to injury by asking him to cover the draft by reporting from New Orleans the next day.
“When they finished telling me I was laid off, they said this was effective immediately,” Werder said on the podcast, via Business Insider. “And the next thing they told me to do as a former employee of ESPN was stay and cover the Saints’ draft, which seemed like an odd way to begin your unemployment.
“But it seemed like it was my option, and I chose not to. I just didn’t feel like it was the right place for me to be, alone in a hotel room and then out in public as a former employee, representing ESPN with the New Orleans Saints.”
That is weird and it’s completely understandable why Werder turned down the request.
Werder shared some other interesting information on the podcast. He said he is still getting paid by ESPN and they will continue to pay out his contract unless he gets another job. Werder also questioned the direction and priorities at ESPN, saying it used to be about news and information and highlights, and he’s not sure if that’s the case anymore.
Although getting laid off was a tough break for Werder, he said one odd silver lining was that he has become famous enough that he was somewhat of a face of the layoffs in many articles, like this one.
