Those lovely people at Tate Publishing, the sleazy vanity press, are in the news again, this time over president Ryan Tate's firing of 25 employees,and the circumstances surrounding the action, and for threatening financial ruin to any others who dare to speak about the company's plans to outsource their operation to the Philippines.
Tate Publishing President Ryan Tate said the company is opening an office in the Philippines, but denies there are any layoffs planned. He said the 25 workers who lost their jobs Thursday were terminated for breaching confidentiality agreements in their employment contracts after leaking rumors about the outsourcing.
[…]In a recording of an employee meeting held this week obtained from a Tate employee by The Journal Record, Ryan Tate threatened to sue staff members and file liens against their houses and cars if they violated their employee contracts by talking to the media or sharing information about the company on Facebook and Twitter.
In the recording, Ryan Tate said he would fire 25 production workers after no one came forward to take responsibility for the anonymous email sent out to employees on Sunday that decried the rumored layoffs.
“Good people are going to lose their jobs – it’s not fair,” Ryan Tate said in the recording. “It’s not right, but that’s the reality of the situation. Jesus himself is the perfect mix of mercy, grace and justice. I have probably failed you in that I have been a little too lenient and a little too on the side of mercy and grace and not on the side of justice.”
At the meeting, Ryan Tate then went on to say several employees had already been named as defendants in a $7.8 million lawsuit for breaching their employee confidentiality agreements. A search of state and federal court filings revealed that no such litigation has been filed as of Thursday, a fact Ryan Tate later confirmed.
What a great guy…and such a fine example of the Christian values he espouses and ueses to selling his outrageously over-priced and utterly worthless vanity press "services." His behavior in the 17 minute recording of the meeting is truly appalling and shows his true colors…you can hear it in its entirety on the Journal Record site.
I’m currently attending college in Oklahoma, and I had received an email earlier this spring semester about an opportunity to intern without pay at Tate Publishing. I had seen your previous post about this company and researched other places that mentioned how and why this was a horrible vanity publishing company. I’m glad that I choose to not pursue that opportunity. There’s no telling what I would have preferred to not “learn” there.
I tweeted about this yesterday, and today am getting a bunch of hits on my website from people searching on “tate publishing outsourcing” and “tate publishing fires”. The Internet is taking notice.
Ryan Tate isn’t as holy as he presents himself. Unless Jesus racked up speeding tickets like they were dollar bills and had a DUI:
http://bit.ly/KCGuTB
“Good people are going to lose their jobs – it’s not fair,” Ryan Tate said
What?! If it is not fair why are you firing them?
I don’t think it is fair that everyone be penalized just because someone wanted to remain anonymous. That’s really unfair, and people have a right to remain anonymous for the very reason Tate threatened to fire 25 people- because the anonymous individual know it was an inflammatory issue.
I come from an area of the United States where businesses routinely slap crosses, bible verses, and fishes on their signs and where used care salesmen can’t wait to tell you how important the church has been in their lives. Usually right before telling you that the small print on the sales contract isn’t important and there’s no need to break down the numbers for what you’re paying.
Not saying necessarily that any business that lists itself as a “good Christian business” is automatically dishonest, but when they haul it out without prompting it’s time to give the contract another, much closer inspection.
Or, as Linda Eisenstein wrote in “Three the Hard Way:” “When they start preaching about honesty, it’s time to check the deck.”
Any updated information? I am an author and I am concerned.
I’m glad that I choose to not pursue that opportunity.