>>Because of the quiet, I’m guessing that he was indeed fired.<<
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This is an interesting deduction.
I think you may be right that silence means he got the axe. If they were going to do nothing, they would have needed to get out ahead of the outrage from our side by expressing some rationale for ignoring the recommendation.
Are career service firings usually annouced?
Doubt it.
But I would expect the leaker to leak.