Unexpectedly losing your job is one of life’s major miseries, but finding out you’ve lost said job via a tweet sent out to over 100,000 followers? That’s gotta sting.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to Overwatch pro Myunbong, who had no idea he’d been let go from New York Excelsior until he was tagged in a tweet bidding him farewell. The original tweet—which has since been deleted—featured a graphic of Myunbong with the message: “Today we say goodbye to Myunbong. We want to thank Myunbong for his dedication and hard work over the past year on the team, and we wish him success in all his future endeavours.”
A pleasant enough message, all well and good… if you already knew you were being released. Since Myunbong had no idea he was understandably pretty confused, quote-retweeting and replying to the farewell with a simple question mark. NY Excelsior quickly realised its mistake, deleting the tweet and releasing a follow-up statement addressing the major cock-up. The org said it “failed to properly communicate with the team” before making the announcement saying it takes “full responsibility and there are no excuses.”
pic.twitter.com/s3rfWkpubeAugust 10, 2022
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It continued: “To Myunbong, we are deeply sorry for our miscommunication and putting you through this situation. Although we wish this was communicated better, we truly appreciate your time with us and wholeheartedly want the best for you in your future endeavours.” Following the upset, Myunbong tweeted to confirm that he had been officially dropped. “The sudden news that was the result of a mistake from another department in the team, as well as not hearing anything regarding the possibility of me being dropped feels very unwarranted,” he said. “GL NYXL.”
The whole situation is incredibly unfortunate, and as some have pointed out it now leaves Myunbong in a spot of trouble—the Korean pro has been rostered onto American teams since early 2021, and working out of the States as a result. As writer Patrick Dane notes: “Being on a visa in a foreign country and finding out you’ve lost your job, and therefore your security via social media before it’s been communicated to you directly is such an awful situation.” Hopefully, Myunbong can find himself on another team before long.