One Minnow Leaves The School

The unemployment rate is rising and those without jobs are finding it difficult to get any sort of work at all.

In spite of such a miserable state of affairs, Jeremy Dickens has quit his job at Education Media and Publishing. He has no new position waiting, no other job offers. He simply resigned.

Barry O'Callaghan's whale-swallowing minnow has been dealing with some serious financial problems lately. In fact, Mr. O'Callaghan has seen his stake reduced from a controlling 40% to a sidelined 22%. Hundreds of synergies were realized in the form of lay-offs, and still it's a struggle to make ends meet.

The much hoped for U.S. government stimulus package to boost textbook sales hasn't materialized as expected, and some effort has recently been put into the adult trade division at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to generate some income.

Mr. Dickens was supposed to be working on mergers and acquisitions, which are non-existent these days. And he was also hired on to mind the finances, but with Mr. O'Callaghan taking a big hit in the recent restructuring, it seems as though Mr. Dickens' job performance in that area didn't please the boss.

It could be said that Mr. Dickens was squeezed out as EMPG abandoned the notion of further acquisitions. He may have been marked as a failure for not finding a buyer for HMH's trade division when Mr. O'Callaghan most needed to unload it. His former position as president of EMPG won't be filled, making it yet another synergy realized.

Was he asked to leave, or is he one of the first to leave a sinking ship, taking a chance on a dodgy employment market rather than go down with the captain.