AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Fires Employee During Conference Call For Everyone To Hear

AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong fired Patch creative director Abel Lenz for snapping a photo during a conference call with employees on August 9, 2013. Usually this wouldn’t make headline news, but Amrstrong did it during a large conference call about the future of Patch, the hyperlocal news websites he founded with Warren Webster and Jon Brod in 2007! Word on the street is that over 1,000 Patch employees were on a conference call when Armstrong noticed Patch’s creative director Abel Lenz and his camera.

“Abel — put that camera down right now. Abel! You’re fired. Out!” Armstrong said in the middle of the call. The irony here is that Armstrong just said that he didn’t care if anyone leaked information about Patch! Talk about being burnt! It appears that this call took place Friday amid news that AOL is slashing the number of Patch sites from 900 to 600.

You can hear the actual audio of the firing below. Stay classy!