‘He’s a battler. He’s not a quitter:’ the narrative framing of Jerry Kill’s health-related organizational exit

ABSTRACT

The abrupt retirement of Jerry Kill, the University of Minnesota’s head football coach, for health reasons during the 2015 season ignited intensely emotional reactions from diverse organizational stakeholders. Our essay analyzes the public discourses surrounding Kill’s organizational exit. Specifically, we explore how audiences co-constructed multiple and conflicting narratives about his departure, concurrently praising and blaming Kill for his body management. We highlight how these discourses construct complex subjectivities for working individuals who experience chronic illness. We conclude by discussing how the narrative frames implicate broader discursive struggles between the cultural values of health and work.

KEYWORDS:

• Organizational exit
• chronic illness
• narrative
• work

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Drs. Laura D. Russell, Debbie Dougherty, and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback on previous versions of this essay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.