Rob Goossens quietly left as a columnist for Veronica Superguide. The television guide blamed him for also writing a column for another magazine. “What the hell!“
After less than a year and a half, Rob Goossens left after a quarrel as a columnist for Veronica Superguide. The magazine, for which Guido den Aantrekker is ultimately responsible, was shocked when Rob was presented in February as the new columnist for the supermarket magazine Ditjes & Datjes.
Rob is annoyed
A week later, Rob’s last column appeared in the Veronica guide. He talks in the podcast Can We Just Talk: “My contract stated that they gave me explicit permission to work for other clients and then at a certain point another client came along, a small one for me and not a competitor either.”
He continues: “Then I got a call from: ‘Yes, sorry, but we are not happy with this. You really should have said this up front, but we want to offer you a way out. Either you stop with that client or we no longer have work for you.’”
‘This is not possible’
Weird, says Rob. “Once we had made agreements about this, I would of course have said to the new client: ‘Wow, listen. I was so careless that I didn’t remember or didn’t properly comply with agreements with another client.’”
He continues: “Then I would of course have said to the new one: ‘This is not possible.’ I would still have found it annoying, but I was very happy with my work for Veronica Superguide. I had a good relationship with them, so I think that’s the least I can do.”
Cut button
However, that was not the case now, says Rob. “If you agree in advance that you can work for anyone and, because that makes me feel better, not even work for direct competitors, but then suddenly get put in front of the block… Yes, I actually become a bit recalcitrant of.”
He continues: “That was then explained to me again: ‘Oh, so you choose your new client?’ No, I’m not choosing that new client at all, I could do just fine on the side, but you make it seem as if a situation has arisen in which things cannot coexist. Then it is up to them to make that decision.”
“what the hell”
That knot was cut by the Veronica guide. “In this case, it meant that I lost my second largest client overnight.”
Is it finally over and out? “Yes, I did make it very clear: ‘Guys, that’s what it says in my contract, what the hell!’ After that we had a better conversation, but there was just no going back.”
Peter R. de Vries
For a long time, Rob received advice in situations like this from his murdered former Boulevard colleague Peter R. de Vries. “When things come into play in the business field, I still regularly ask myself: what would Peter have advised in this situation? That makes it easier for me to make difficult decisions as well.”
He concludes: “I am sure he would also be very proud of me for how I handled such a situation at Veronica Superguide.”
The Veronica guide presented Rob’s successor this week: Tina Nijkamp.
podcast
The podcast with Rob: