AOL's Tim Armstrong fires Patch creative director Abel Lenz mid-meeting for iPhotography

You remember Patch, don't you? The brilliant idea of local news collected on a page or email like Bed-stuy or Virginia Highland-Druid Hills, and served up in one place. While Google muscled in on this territory by tailoring all searches to be both local and personal, Patch struggles. So AOL is dismantling Patch which is a crying shame, but somehow this news is overshadowed by the fact that AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong fired Patch creative director Abel Lenz for snapping a photos during a conference call with employees on August 9, 2013.

Thanks to jimromenesko.com we can listen in on that conference call, that over 1000 AOL employees were dialed in to.

AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong is very serious as he delivers a message to the employees of AOL about Patch and how committed he is personally.

I will take full credit and full responsibility for anything that’s not right at Patch. If the coffee machine doesn’t work, or a town doesn’t work — anything that’s going wrong at Patch you can blame me for it.

As he is saying this, apparently Creative Director Abel Lenz is playing iPhotographer and snapping away. Tim Armstrong fires him on the spot: Abel, put that camera down right now. ...Abel, you’re fired. Out. Well, Armstrong did just say that he was personally responsible for everything, this includes photographs taken during Path conference call announcements I guess.

Hand on your heart now, how many times have you wanted to kick that office iPhotographer in the shins for not paying attention at meetings? One thousand people have dialed in, and Lenz is playing with his camera. The Daily Mail (ugh) reports that apparently Lenz did this all the time.

According to Patch employees, Lenz often snapped pictures during conference calls and staff meetings and would later post them to the company's internal website.

Later Lenz tweeted this pic from the Old Town Bar. If the drink was celebratory or sorrow-drowning is anyones guess. Perhaps this will usher in a new era of people paying attention instead of digitally documenting, tweeting, beeping, instagramming everything. Be in the moment, kids, it's more zen and as a bonus, it won't piss off your boss.

No comment. (at Old Town Bar) [pic] — https://t.co/juAEHlm6sd

— Abel Lenz (@lenzabel) August 9, 2013