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.
I always have had mixed feelings on stuff like this. On one hand fuck her. On the other I don’t want my job to have any say in what I do in my off hours. If it’s not a crime they should have no say and not be able to take any employment actions against me.
This case it works out, but it’s not a precedent, or perhaps fact, of working life that I enjoy
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
No, I don’t really remember anyone being fired for that. Especially not any CEOs.