One of the things that caught my attention was the news post from Mashable discussing how Joey DeFancesco, a former employee at Providence Renaissance, decided to go out with a bang to quit with his former employer.  He got together with his band mates and filmed his experience quitting his job with the hotel chain.  This is certainly something you never really see, so here is the video for you all to see for yourself:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A4UGtM4hDQ[/youtube]

In essence, this video has transformed into a viral video phenomenon and has been reported and discussed in various news outlets and websites like the Huffington Post.  Many have discussed how this is a unique perspective to take in quitting a job, while others are stating that Joey basically turned some people’s fantasy into reality.

So, in my opinion – there are several issues that I do see with this tactic along with how this was approached by Joey.  First, the missing component of this story is the narrative behind the reason to quit with such gusto.  Dave Carroll in the United Guitar situation provided the audience and the social media community the background story on what he experienced flying with United Airlines and was able to present this information through the form of a musical tone.   While there is an explanation at the bottom of the YouTube video, this might have been more effective if it was also presented and discussed in the video.

Second, while I do think Joey has stated that he has a job right now – how will his future employer think about this action?  What will happen if Joey is not happy with this job – will he do this again?  I would also state to that what we post online stays online, and it would be interesting to get Joey’s perspective on whether or not he wants to see this in a year, five years, or even 25 years down the line. Thinking about this and also considering how this will impact your reputation online is crucial.

One thing I did not notice yet was a response from the Providence Renaissance Hotel about this given incident and situation – I have not seen anything on their website or on social media.  I would say that they are allowing Joey to control the message and information presented about their brand, and there are certainly some reputation risks to this that need to be addressed.   I would be interested to see what they plan on doing in terms of their crisis communication practices both in the traditional media as well as in social media.  We will have to see how this case develops.

Hope you all are having a great day.

Best Wishes,

Karen