In Defense of Firing Adam Smith
August 3rd, 2012




Santino makes a very persuasive case that Adam Smith, the very mean person who made a spectacle of himself by telling off a Chick-fil-A worker at the drive-through and then posting the exchange on YouTube, shouldn’t have been fired from his job as CFO of a medical device manufacturer.

I disagree. Sort of.

First off, it’s always lousy when anyone loses their job. Even jerks. It’s just no fun, no matter who you are.

Second, if Smith was a low-level employee at his company the case for him keeping his job would be much stronger. But the fact that he’s so high up the corporate structure–CFO is a big deal–carries with it a couple of problems. (1) Corporate officers have a different level of responsibility to the company than do front-office grunts. Part of that is to not publicly embarrass the company. It’s a burden, obviously. But these guys get compensated for it. (2) As a high-level officer making such a public stink, his company could easily be worried that he’s costing them business with clients who find his manner and/or views unpleasant. Not an unreasonable concern. (3) His company could also be worried about future HR litigation: If a lower-level worker filed a hostile workplace complaint against them, citing Smith and claiming that the workplace was intolerant of something or other, that video would be a real problem. And the company’s prior knowledge of the video would be, I suspect, highly problematic.

In any case, I hope he lands on his feet.

  1. Galley Friend J.E. August 3, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    Not me. I hope he lands on his head.

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  2. Nedward August 3, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    It is a fairly competitive industry; as CFO would he normally be held to non-competes and the webs of disclosure rules? I assume they’d not have fired him unless that is the case. Maybe Karl Rove can hire him for a speaking tour on Obamatax sec. 1405

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  3. James Versluis August 12, 2012 at 9:42 pm

    My immediate response was a leery look (he lost his *job*? Uhhh…), but yes, you’re right.

    To whit, I was on the Left once (Schactmanite Trot, thank you), and I know from experience there would be zero soul searching from the left-liberals on the subject, were the shoe on the other metaphorical foot. None. They would be celebrating the guy’s firing instead of whining.

    It’s good political people constantly question how-far-is-too-far when it comes to destroying the enemy: our country depends on it, more or less. It’s a problem that only one side does this any more.

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