The chief executive of a Michigan bank has lost her job after facing backlash for a social media photo of her family in sweatshirts that read “Lake America,” referencing Donald Trump’s relabeling of Lake Ontario.
Jane Smith from Family First Credit Union recently went viral after sharing the photo of her and three relatives wearing navy blue crewnecks with the words “Lake America” scrawled in white. The picture was snapped as her family left on September 11 for a 10-day trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, but Smith says the sweatshirts were edited onto their bodies using AI.
“We weren’t trying to make a political statement,” Smith told Michigan outlet WJRT. “However, we were kind of poking fun at the fact that one of the Great Lakes’ names were getting changed.”
Family First Credit Union announced Wednesday that Smith was no longer with the company and that Jason Acosta, the chief operations officer, would serve as interim CEO.
Like others have said, CEO is different. Tax/legal wise there is a set of positions with the company that are defined, and registered with the government. They are empowered to act for the company in ways regular employees are not. I think the line to draw is between them and the rest. If a person is a federally registered representative of the company, then all behaviour outside the office matters. I also think they should bear legal responsibility for the crimes of the company as well. But we know that won’t happen.
Except this isn’t a CEO only occurance. Remember all the people that got fired for celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death? Same principal
Very much so. And so far I think every one of them that sued won. At least I haven’t heard of any of them losing. I am just saying we can be more specific about the line which currently exists and is very fuzzy.
Only the ones fired from public positions in government like teachers won their lawsuits and that’s because the government is restrained by the first amendment. Employees of private companies do not have the same protections.
Today the pendulum of corporate morality swung in a way you like. Tomorrow it might not, and regardless this bank will foreclose on a widowed single mother without a second thought.
Companies shouldn’t be out friends or owners
Interesting. I had not noticed that. I wonder if it is because of the lame at will employment laws. Basically they don’t have to say why they fired you at all. I think those are crap. But I agree that the rank and file employees should have the protection to have a private life. I just think there is a reasonable line between them and the official corporate positions at least.
Even if they stated the reason as the social media posts about Kirk it’s still legal for a corporation. Speech for employees is not protected.
Honestly I could agree with your conclusion. My view now is since no one has protections is to establish that first then I’ll discuss if some employees can not be included.
The issue with CEO is its such a variable meaning. The woman in the post being a CEO for a local credit union is a completely different world than the CEO of Apple. Both in terms of pay and actual work.
Yeah, I follow ya. Different approaches, but aiming for the same goal.
As for this women. I have worked for some smaller companies, and some large. It seems to me that the role of the CEO is often more a marketing role. They use their connections to get deals done and such. Though a bank may be different. They aren’t selling per se to businesses, but I would guess the role of CEO there is also part of getting bigger clients to keep their money at the bank. So I can see how even off the clock comments can vastly undermine their job performance. Where as for most of us it wouldn’t. But I can also imagine there are probably companies out there with CEOs for which they aren’t really just interacting with customers, but actually spending the majority of their time managing the company. So yeah, maybe a blanket exception doesn’t fit.
Quit trying to “both sides” fascism. She deserved exactly what she got because that’s what she wants for others.
No, I very much agree with the debate. If joe the mechanic at the nearby car dealership posted something and got fired for it, I would back his right to have done so without retaliation, even if what he posted disagrees with my opinion. As should we all. Same as we should protect the rights of ICE detainees to decent treatment and due process. Because it is the right thing to do. Even mass murders deserve decent treatment and due process.
Said the corpo-fascist
No, I don’t really remember anyone being fired for that. Especially not any CEOs.
Quite an extensive list
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj06jgl9qzlo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reprisals_against_commentators_on_the_Charlie_Kirk_assassination
You are right though no CEOs would celebrate such good news