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Physicist fired for writing book

A few more leads on the Jeff Schmidt story.

http://www.adjunctnation.com/news/advocate/may.01/deskdrawer2.php3
This is an article dated May/June 2001.

Here quoted:
"DESPITE 19 YEARS of widely praised work as a staff editor at Physics Today
magazine, controversial author Dr. Jeff Schmidt was fired last May. The
official reason? His statement that he wrote his book, Disciplined Minds, at
least in part, "at the office."

According to Schmidt, however, his bosses had disliked his outspoken views
ever since he had questioned company policies at a retreat in 1997. A few
days after reading the provocative opening sentences in Schmidt's book,
magazine executives escorted him to the human-resources office, had someone
gather his personal items and told him never to return.

Schmidt's book, Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals
and the Soul-Battering System that Shapes Their Lives (Rowman & Littlefield,
2000), is a radical and disturbing look at the lives of today's 21 million
professionals (read a review of the book: Adjunct Advocate, Mar/Apr 2001).

Profits from the book, however, have not eased his financial plight.

"I understand the book is doing quite well," Schmidt says, but adds that he
never expected royalties to be a significant source of income. Officials at
Rowman & Littlefield say Disciplined Minds has "broad national distribution"
and may soon appear in paperback. According to Mary Sestric at Rowman &
Littlefield, 1,800 copies have been sold since April, 2000.

Since his dismissal, life for Schmidt has not been easy. His former employer
tried to deny him unemployment compensation, forcing him to take his case to
the Maryland Department of Labor. There, a hearing determined that Physics
Today had fired Schmidt without evidence that his writing had interfered
with his work for the magazine and awarded him benefits. He is asking for
his job back, but so far Physics Today officials have been unsympathetic to
his plea. Sixteen former Physics Today staff members have written a letter
to the publisher protesting his firing. In addition, Noam Chomsky,
distinguished linguist and social critic at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, helped solicit more than 130 signatures on a protest letter.
Schmidt has created a web site at disciplined-minds.com containing letters
of support and other updated information about his book and his firing."

http://www.linguafranca.com/print/0012/field_stealingtime.html
This link gives some more colour and background. dated Dec/jan 2001
Discusses a bit about what Jeff meant it when he said he was "stealing time'

The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://www.chronicle.com apparently has an article quoting the PT editors.
The contents is at
http://www.chronicle.com/chronicle/v46/4640guide.htm but you need a password
to get it. I should say that if the 'tasters' on this contents page are
accurate, there is some further interesting reading here. :-)

1800 books sold (if the above quote is accurate) is not much. At least one
has found their way into a University Library.
http://www.regis.edu/lib/aug00.htm and there are a score or so more in a
Google search

The story has appeared in news of the wierd
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/nw001229.html

While acknowledging we cannot always rely on the internet, etc etc, there is
little recent stuff to go on, and nothing I can find from the point of view
of PT editors. It does seem that there is a background at PT wrt Jeff that
goes back a bit. Lawyers have become involved. There are tons of letters
on Jeffs site, but nothing back it seems from PT.
I think I will try to get a copy of the book.

One issue has come out to do with the use of time at 'work' and what we do,
etc etc. What do you do when you have 'finished' - ?? I recall 28 years
ago I was nearly fired from a production line where I found that if I
reversed the order of assembly (putting heater elements and the lugs into
heaters) I was 20% faster. Less effort. Identical or improved result.
They transferred me to the worst job in the place.
I got another job on a grassing gang. I was threatened with dire
consequences if I worked too hard (when I was actually lazy and trying to be
efficient). My third job was on a truck workjing for a council. Ditto. My
fourth job was in a concrete laying team. Ditto again. These were
experiences while I grew up before goiong teaching.

I have a new job now, basically editing. Only some of the work is
prescribed. The rest is up to me. I have a boss with the most interesting
attitude towards work, productivity etc, among the best I have had. I am
NOT on 'academic staff', I'm in the service side where there is a whole
different view of academic staff.

This Disciplined Minds thing reminds me of the old story of the panel
beater. If something is a bitout of shape the first bash often needs to be
a bit of an overstatement. I wonder what would have happened if Jeff had
written his book without an allusion to Abbie Hoffman? If we take a
truncated view of the book that is available in the small snippets here and
there on the net some of us probably can resonate with the ideas expressed.

have a nice day.
6.30am here, must go to my other work

-Derek

Derek Chirnside - DCandPC@netaccess.co.nz
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http://users.netaccess.co.nz/mindtools/ (Personal pages)
http://www.phys.canterbury.ac.nz/~physnzip/ (Canterbury pages)
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.
It is our strong belief that you erred in firing Jeff.
We therefore urge you to give him his job back.
Respectfully,
Names Withheld
(Alexandria, Virginia)
(Southold, New York)
(Naples, Italy)
(Providence, Rhode Island)
(Paris, France)
(Bedminster, New Jersey)
(Portland, Oregon)
(Brooklyn, New York)
(Brookline, Massachusetts)
(San Francisco, California)
(Queens, New York)
(Brooklyn, New York)
(Brooklyn, New York)
(Bellport, New York)
(Brooklyn, New York)
(Burlington, Vermont)
***********************************
22 January 2001
Professor Frederick M. Dolan
Department of Rhetoric
University of California, Berkeley
Dear Dr. Brodsky:
Ordinarily, I would never think of intervening in cases
involving hiring and firing in organizations with which
I am unfamiliar. I appreciate the complexity of such
decisions and understand that they can be difficult for
outsiders to understand.

In the matter of Jeff Schmidt's dismissal from his position
at Physics Today, I feel that I must protest. I have known
Jeff for almost 25 years, and know him to be a man
whose integrity and skill are simply above reproach.
Whatever suggestions he may have had for Physics Today were,
I am certain, well worth considering. ... To suggest that
taking some time on one's job to work on a book (if that
is indeed what Jeff did) is a firing offense is, to put it
crudely, Neanderthal. I should think, on the contrary,
that Physics Today would be eager to take credit for
nurturing the author of an excellent and incisive inquiry
into the state of the discipline.

*********************
June 15, 2000
To: Randolph A. Nanna
Publisher
Physics Today
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, Maryland 20740
Dear Mr. Nanna:
What did you gain by firing Jeff Schmidt? I am
flummoxed by this question as I consider all
the things you damaged or lost: Physics Today's most
competent articles editor; the magazine's
perennially fragile collective morale; and,
most flagrantly, AIP's public image and credibility.
Let's take these one by one.

Unless another blue-pencil virtuoso of even greater
talent has joined the staff since my year-long stint
with the magazine in the early 1990s, Jeff was the
best articles editor you ever had or are likely
to have. (I've spent more hours than I care to count
doing the same thing, so I know whereof I speak.) Not
only does he edit with an all-too-rare technical
precision, he has an uncanny ability to coax even
the most prickly of authors toward clarity and
coherence. Titles and hubris do not cow him,
and he is doggedly but politely persistent. Ask any
of the hundreds of authors who have benefited from
his patient -- dare I use the word -- professionalism.
...

If misuse of company time is the principal crime
for which Jeff has been tried and convicted, then
I can assure you that -- during the time I worked in
the same office -- he was far from the most
egregious offender. Others must come forward on
their own, but I certainly can speak for myself:
not only did I spend time researching and writing
a weekly column for a major daily newspaper while
sitting at my desk, the staff spent a fair amount of
time discussing the topics I chose. It was no secret.
I did every scrap of work that was given to me as soon
as it was given to me. But I reclaimed the time left
over as my own.
...
Sincerely,
Marlowe Hood
Editor, Agence France Presse
Maitre de Conference, French Press Institute (Sorbonne)
55bis Quai de Valmy, 75010 Paris, France

cc: Marc H. Brodsky, James H. Stith
********************************

Jane Jackson, Co-Director, Modeling Instruction Program
Box 871504, Dept.of Physics & Astronomy,ASU,Tempe,AZ 85287
480-965-8438/fax:965-7331 <http://modeling.asu.edu>