By now you have probably heard about Amy Cooper, the woman who called the police this weekend because she saw a black man birdwatching in New York City’s Central Park. She doesn’t seem very nice, and she was even pretty rough with her own dog. You may have seen the video.
Well, today, she was fired by her employer, investment firm Franklin Templeton. I think there are a couple of lessons here for workers.
First, in an at-will employment state like Pennsylvania (I don’t know about NY law) you can be fired for almost any reason, or for no reason at all. You can even be fired for drinking the wrong beer. You can certainly be fired because a video of you acting like a racist jerk gets posted to social media.
Second, if someone is pointing a cell phone camera at you, you should assume that everyone on the planet will see and hear what you are saying and doing. This is true when you are being a jerk in Central Park. It is true when you are caught drinking while dressed as Santa.. It is true when you post or send a sexy photo to your significant other. It is true when you are marching with tiki torches and chanting racist slogans.
Third, once it is on the internet, it never goes away. Never. Before cell phones and internet, we got away with doing a lot of stupid things. As a younger man I did and said many things that I am glad are not preserved on the internet forever. I was lucky. No one has that luxury anymore.
So, if you have to post online, stick with cat videos. There are no known cases of people getting fired for posting cat videos. Yet.