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"... While part of me wants to fist pump and revel in this schadenfreude, another part of me hesitates to celebrate. Sure, Smith is a doucher of epic proportions, but this was an individual on his own time acting like a doucher, not while representing the company. Companies don't own their employees' thoughts and opinions off the clock, unless, of course, that is your previously agreed upon arrangement."

Not hardly, toots.

When a corporate officer causes the email and phone lines to their company to be jammed with outraged private citizens because of some idiotic prank, you can count on almost every corporation calling that officer into a closed door HR meeting telling them they're terminated effective immediately. The HR person hands them two checks -- salary equivalent to the next pay period, and unused vacation days cashed in. They try to make the meeting firm but fair while giving enough time for step two, below:

While that's going on, the IT group is locking his account and network access and the facilities operations person is sweeping the obvious personal items on their desk into a cardboard box. They have that box already waiting in the lobby when the fired exec is guided out of the HR meeting by the head of HR and premises security officer(s) if necessary. If he had a secretary, they send her home for the rest of the day and tell her not to answer any calls from the terminated employee. The last thing they do is account for any laptops or phones that were issued.

Two minutes later, some other corporate officer blasts out a company 'All' email stating that effective immediately, executive so-and-so is no longer employed with the company. Period. That's when all the hilarious instant messages start flying around the company asking what happened.

If you've never seen this happen with your own eyes, it's a remarkable event. Where I work, we're on our third CIO in just under three years.

Most executives know when they're about to get canned, but this one didn't. It must have been delicious. No force on Earth could have kept me from being within earshot of that closed door meeting hoping to see a meltdown. Best memories I have in the corporate world were those who flew into a rage in their termination meeting and getting to watch them escorted off the premises. Sometimes, the whole company is doing cartwheels of joy out of their cubicles and down the hallways like something out of the opening 'Come Out! Come Out!' scene of Munchkinland in The Wizard Of Oz.