History ReassignedToAntarctica / RealLife

** Alexander Yakovlev, head of the Communist Party's Department of Ideology and Propaganda, published an article criticizing anti-Semitism in the USSR and was reassigned to Canada. [[CanadaEh Quiet, boring, faraway Canada]]. [[ReassignmentBackfire This may have ended up coming back to bite the Soviets in the end]]: While there, he had an opportunity to meet and strike up a friendship with a visiting Soviet official, one who was willing to listen to Yakovlev's ideas on reform... an official by the name of [[UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev]].

* According to some stories, Turner Broadcasting would re-assign exiled employees to the backstage administration of [[Wrestling/{{WCW}} World Championship Wrestling]]. Most of the staff in the company's troubled later years either had been KickedUpstairs to rot or were unsuspecting newbies who had no idea what they were in for.

* Throughout most of the late 1980s and the 90s, ProfessionalWrestling/{{WCW}} was owned by Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting system of media companies. Wrestling being a relatively niche area of media compared to pro sports and news, those outside employees assigned to work there were either dedicated wrestling fans or had been shuffled off from other areas against their will. This was to the company's benefit, as the shows took on a very polished, professional tone and appearance comparable to rival [[ProfessionalWrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] programming, as opposed to the gritty, low-res amateur feel it had held before. But later, when ticket sales and ratings began to plummet, those same media employees had no idea how to correct it, as they had very little experience in the wrestling field as a whole and creative control was held by a small handful of entrenched veterans who had no interest in giving up control of their fiefdom without a fight. So even energetic and interested employees who came to [=WCW=] in its later years quickly became jaded and, with no investment in the product itself, the company became a place to collect a paycheck and not much else until its sale.

* Several Dreamworks staff members had been reassigned ("shreked") to a little production known as ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' that was mostly done to cash in on the success of Pixar movies. Those who were "shreked" had a happy ending, as ''Shrek'' was a ''huge'' success ''and'' won the first-ever Academy Award For Best Animated Feature.

!!General examples
* For police officers this is a punishment just one step down from TurnInYourBadge, often used to avoid drawing media attention or when union contracts would tie a firing up in costly appeals. The unreliable officer is transferred to a menial role like parking enforcement or dispatch where they can't do much PR damage.
!!Specific examples

** Another such priest given this treatment was one Jean Vianney. A lackluster student at seminary, he apparently squeaked by in his grades enough to be ordained. However, his bishop had very little faith in his abilities, and decided to send him to the tiny, insignificant and thoroughly corrupt town of Ars, on the premise that even as seemingly incompetent Vianney was, he'd have to actively work at it to ''lose'' any souls in [[WretchedHive a place like Ars.]] However as a priest, he found his calling in the confessional and at the pulpit and became renowned as a confessor and preacher. People from all over France would flock to his parish to hear his sermons and have him hear their confessions. [[ReassignmentBackfire He would eventually be canonized a saint and would be named patron saint of priests]].

** The United States Vice Presidency was also used as a political Antarctica from the colonial era through the early 20th century. (Secretary of State, not VP, was the Heir Apparent job in early American history.) In ordinary circumstances, the VP's only real duty is casting a tiebreaking vote in the Senate, so politicians that party officials wanted out of the way but couldn't just ignore were nominated to the Vice Presidency to prevent them from running for any other office — most famously, Theodore Roosevelt. Of course, the problem is that if the president dies or resigns, [[ReassignmentBackfire that dead-end job just turned into Leader of the Free World]] — most famously, Theodore Roosevelt. This wasn't even that uncommon an occurrence: there were 4 VP successions in the course of the 19th century. Yet it took until Harry Truman assumed power after FDR's death and immediately dropped two nukes that Americans really appreciated the importance of scrutinizing VP candidates before they were elected. There hasn’t been a VP succession since 1974 but there’s still a bit of truth to this idea. In 2016, Mike Pence was picked as the VP nominee by the Republican Party partially to assuage Evangelicals’ fears about Trump and partially because as Governor of Indiana, he’d overseen two catastrophes of his own making[[note]]An HIV outbreak caused when he made the state shut down Planned Parenthood offices and it was the only place in a county with a huge heroin problem where you could do needle exchanges. He was forced to take the Medicaid expansion made available by the Affordable Care Act to get a hold on the situation. The other was a huge economic backlash against a "religion freedom law"[[/note]] that put his re-election bid into question. The GOP didn’t want to risk losing a governorship (which isn’t as partisan of an office) based on unforced errors and presented him as a running mate.

* Through the late 19th century, US Presidents looking to get troublesome members of their own party out of the country for a few years usually made them Ambassador to Russia. This might sound weird today considering Russia's current position as one of America's major geopolitical adversaries, but at the time, Russia was the weakest and most distant of the major European powers, with few colonial ambitions in North America, giving the ambassadorship prestige but no influence. It wasn't until after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI that US strategic interests in Russia required more diplomatic competence from ambassadors.

* After the ''Series/{{Dateline}}'' "Waiting to Explode" controversy[[note]]In an attempt to show that GM trucks [[EveryCarIsAPinto were prone to explosions, segment producers installed incendiary devices to the vehicles used in taped crash tests. GM learned of this and sued NBC for defamation and removed advertising from the network[[/note]] led to [=NBC=] firing the segment's executive producer, senior producer and segment producer; Michele Gillen, the correspondent involved in the segment, was exiled from NBC News to the network's Miami [=O&O=] [=WTVJ=], where she went to work as an evening newscast anchor.

* After the ''Series/{{Dateline}}'' "Waiting to Explode" controversy led to [=NBC=] firing the segment's executive producer, senior producer and segment producer; Michele Gillen, the correspondent involved in the segment, was exiled from NBC News to the network's Miami [=O&O=] [=WTVJ=], where she went to work as an evening newscast anchor.

* In order to avoid paying severance and all that, they invented "constructive discharge". You don't get fired, they just make working conditions less and less humane (by piling on more work, making unreasonable rules and restrictions, and so on) until your only option is to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quit]]. While this means you have UltimateJobSecurity as long as your patience holds out, your time would almost certainly be better spent looking for a more humane job. In some places, it's possible to take an employer to court for this after leaving.

** In some cases it could be considered KickedUpstairs; in the case of Otto Von Bismarck, for example, Russia was one of Prussia's most powerful neighbors, making his reassignment to Russia appear as a promotion. It was really meant to sideline him out of domestic
politics.

* According to an infamous 2015 report by the ''Nikkei'' newspaper, Creator/{{Konami}} punished developers (for lack of productivity or committing infractions as petty as liking a former coworker's Facebook announcement that he had gotten a new job) with reassignment to positions as security guards, assembly line workers in pachinko machine factories or janitors in Konami fitness clubs.

* In order to avoid paying severance and all that, they invented "constructive discharge". You don't get fired, they just make working conditions less and less humane (by piling on more work, making unreasonable rules and restrictions, and so on) until your only option is to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quit]]. While this means you have UltimateJobSecurity as long as your patience holds out, your time would almost certainly be better spent looking for a better job. In some places, it's possible to take an employer to court for this after leaving.

** When an employee's services are no longer needed but the company would rather not fire them, they are given a spot by the office building's windows to pass the time idly, doing so every day until they leave or retire. This type of employee was called "the crew sitting by the window" (窓際族 ''madogiwa-zoku''), but the practice has largely been phased out.

* During pre-production for Disney's ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', Creator/BillPeet was exiled from the feature animation division to supervising animation for peanut butter commercials after getting on Creator/WaltDisney's bad side. After enduring the punishment for two months, Bill stubbornly moved back to his regular office, only to see that Walt either decided to not acknowledge their clash or forgot about it.

* According to some stories, Turner Broadcasting would re-assign exiled employees to the backstage administration of [[Wrestling/{{WCW}} World Championship Wrestling]], with most of the people assigned there either having been KickedUpstairs, put out to pasture, or unsuspecting newbies who had no idea what they were in for, especially in the company's later years when there was constant issues backstage and behind the scenes.

* A common punishment for police officers who screw up big time, but just short of TurnInYourBadge big, especially if firing them would draw too much attention. An example would be reassignment to crossing guard duty or some other menial police task where the unreliable officer can't do much PR damage.

* ''NBC Nightly News'' anchor Brian Williams was caught embellishing some of his stories to make them more dramatic. After serving a six-month suspension, he lost his position as the anchor of the top-rated network news show and was transferred to ratings-challenged MSNBC to become the cable channel's "breaking news anchor", with no guaranteed air time and all his appearances subject to the discretion of network executives. [[ReassignmentBackfire Unfortunately for MSNBC, he didn't resign]], and after proving to be a decent ratings draw during the 2016 presidential election, he was given the weekday 11 PM to 12 AM slot for his own show. Despite the late hour, he turned the show into a success that allowed him to retire on his own terms and for MSNBC to keep the brand going with Stephanie Ruhle.

* Creator/DanRather would find himself an example as a result of the Rathergate controversy, losing his longtime job as anchor of the CBS Evening News on March 9, 2005 after exactly 24 years (not helping matters was the CBS Evening News having been in the network news basement for over a decade compared to being the top-rated newscast when Rather succeeded Creator/WalterCronkite in 1981); spending a year more or less in exile doing [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen minor projects for CBS]] before ending his 44-year tenure at CBS in 2006.

** The U.S. Army's least popular posting is Fort Polk in Louisiana, as it's set in the middle of a swamp where the environment is hot, humid, and bug infested. Runners up are Fort Irwin, which is located in the middle of the California desert, and Fort Drum, which is located in the middle of an eternally cold forest on the U.S.-Canadian border.
** The U.S. Air Force has two such locations. First is Thule in Greenland, which is above the Arctic Circle and remains icebound throughout the winter. The few local inhabitants mostly speak Greenlandic (an Inuit language) or Danish, so there's not much entertainment to be found off-base. Soldiers stationed there have little to do besides 8-hour shifts staring at a radar screen for incoming missiles... and in over 60 years of operation, there have never been any incoming missiles. The base was later renamed Pituffik Space Base as command transferred to the newly independent Space Force.\\\

** The [[SemperFi United States Marine Corps]] has the 29 Palms remote training base, a downplayed example that is the third-largest Marine Corps facility in the US and is actually a fairly prestigious posting for the marines sent there (plus the area is developing slowly). Unfortunately, it's in the middle of the Mojave Desert and incredibly boring for energetic young Marines...
** The U.S. Navy has Naval Air Station Lemoore, located in Central California. To put things in perspective, this is a Navy base that is as far away from the coast as you can get. Instead of water, Lemoore is surrounded on all sides by endless swathes of farmland which provide limited recreational opportunities. Another quirk that sets Lemoore apart from other undesirable posts is the area's infamously bad air pollution.

** Oddly enough, the Canadian Airborne Regiment was seen as an Antarctica in the Canadian Land Forces. It is also a cautionary tale: so many regiments cast problem soldiers out to the Airborne Regiment that its home base degenerated into [[WretchedHive a hotbed of hazing, white supremacist activity and criminality]]. It all came to a head when the Airborne Regiment [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia_affair tortured and killed a Somalian teenager]] during a UN peacekeeping mission, which led to the regiment being permanently disbanded.
* In UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, each of the combatants had at least one theater they reviled.

** While the Soviet Union only ever had one formal theater of war, there were certainly better and worse areas along the frontlines — but ''nobody'' wanted the siege of Stalingrad. There was also the undeclared Far East theater in Siberia and Mongolia, the frozen ass-end of the USSR where the Soviets were trying to discourage the Japanese from attempting a full-scale invasion based out of occupied Manchuria. Iosif Apanasenko, a successful field commander with a tendency to overstep his authority and talk back to high-ranking Party officials, was eventually transferred there.

** For the Union, Irvin [=McDowell=] started the war commanding at the First Battle of Bull Run, was demoted to corps command, then wound up in the Department of the Pacific, hundreds of miles from any fighting. John Pope lost the Second Battle of Bull Run and spent the rest of the war fighting Indians in Minnesota. Nathaniel Banks moved from the Virginia theater to Louisiana, where he still managed to botch the Red River Campaign. Ulysses S. Grant, by contrast, exemplified the Reassignment Out Of Antarctica: starting from an ''Illinois militia unit'', he steamrolled Confederate armies in Kentucky and Tennessee, restoring Union access to the Mississippi shipping lane, a massive tactical gain that earned him command of ''the entire war''.
** The Confederacy typically exiled washouts to the Trans-Mississippi theater, encompassing Arkansas, Louisiana, and Eastern Texas. These included Sterling Price (failed invasion of Missouri), Earl Van Dorn (loser at Pea Ridge and Second Corinth, demoted to cavalry command), Theophilus Holmes (supremely incompetent division commander under Robert E. Lee) and Henry Sibley (failed invasion of New Mexico). Two of the best generals in the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, Richard Taylor and Edmund Kirby-Smith, are the exceptions that prove the rule: they were successful ''field officers'' back in Virginia, so promotion to general was a reward even when it meant reassignment to a more obscure unit.

* Historically, 'Ambassador to the Russian Empire' served this role for many Western and Central European governments in the 1800s, as it was typically on the periphery of western politics while still technically being involved. Anyone given the posting would have business in politics but would be generally unable to actually effect anything.
** In some cases it could be considered KickedUpstairs; in the case of Otto Von Bismarck, for example, Russia was one of Prussia's most powerful neighbors, making his reassignment to Russia appear as a promotion. It was really meant to sideline him out of politics.

** The U.S. Air Force has two such locations. First is Thule in Greenland, which is above the Arctic Circle and remains icebound throughout the winter. The few local inhabitants mostly speak Greenlandic (an Inuit language) or Danish, so there's not much entertainment to be found off-base. Soldiers stationed there have little to do besides 8-hour shifts staring at a radar screen for incoming missiles... and in over 60 years of operation, there have never been any incoming missiles.\\\

* Several Dreamworks staff members had been reassigned ("shreked") to a little production known as ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' that was mostly done to cash in on the success of Pixar movies. Those who were "shreked" had a happy ending, as ''Shrek'' was a ''huge'' success ''and'' won the first-ever Academy Award For Best Animated Feature.

* Though many mobsters have been killed by the UsefulNotes/TheMafia over the years, some numbskulls were given a pass but received other penalties for falling out of line. For example:

** Khrushchev used this as his preferred method for disposing of political enemies. After former premier Georgy Malenkov and foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov unsuccessfully plotted to kick him out in 1957, Khrushchev appointed Malenkov as a ''manager of a hydro-electric plant'' in the grim Kazakh industrial city of Ust-Kamenogorsk, while Molotov was appointed ''Ambassador to Mongolia''. Luckily, Molotov liked the Mongolians and made a big success of his Ambassadorship. Nikolai Bulganin was likewise sent to Stavropol when he fell from power.

* The backstage administration of Wrestling/{{WCW}} was Turner Broadcasting's Antarctica. For complex reasons that can be summed up very ''very'' loosely as "too many egos and not enough common sense", WCW was a horrible place to work. Most of the people assigned there were either KickedUpstairs, put out to pasture, or unsuspecting newbies who had no idea what they were in for.

* After one too many clashes with [[HeirToTheDojo Henry Ford II]], [[SelfMadeMan Lee Iacocca]] was reassigned from president of Ford Motor Company to [[KickedUpstairs some impressive job title]] -- with a run-down office in a parts warehouse in a rough part of UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} (mind you, this was in TheSeventies, before "rough part of Detroit became redundant). A job offer from Chrysler made this a Reassignment Backfire for Ford, as he pulled their ailing competitor back from the brink and became the first modern "celebrity CEO".

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