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.
There’s a HUGE difference between the CEO of a company doing something, and a back end worker.
The CEOs job is to be the face of the company. Set the expectations for the workers. If your CEO is doing something unethical, it’s seen as the company doing it.
If one of their workers, or even a middle manager posted the exact same picture, then it wouldn’t have been a big deal.
If they’ll do it to the top they’ll do it to you for less.