Not the Real Adam Smith

As I said in an earlier post, I've never even asked a fast food employee about their sexual orientation - indeed, I've never even asked them about the quality of the catsup.  When I am in a fast food joint it is to purchase food.  But as a result of both sides of the Chick-Fil-A demonstrations last week - one employee (a young Chick Fil A clerk) showed herself to be a consummate professional.   And one former employee of a local medical device company showed himself to be a buffoon, not once but twice.

On August First, a large number of people supported Chick-Fil-A and their CEO who had expressed, on a Baptist media show.  Then a guy named Adam Smith drove up to a drive through window of one of their restaurants and rants at a young employee.   He is now the former CFO of a corporation and was fired for his inappropriate behavior with this young person at a fast food restaurant.   Listen to him rant.   The Company sells "hate filled" sandwiches.


What impressed me the most about this exchange was how this teenager handled herself.  She stated clearly that it was inappropriate for her to interject her feelings about a political issue into serving the public.  Even at whatever age she is, she understands the necessity for separating personal beliefs from business exchanges.

Evidently, Vante - the company that hired Mr. Smith understood that his behavior was inappropriate and in my opinion rightly terminated him.  So he then produced another seven minute rant.   What amazes me about his comments is that not once does he question whether it is appropriate for a senior corporate official to rant at a person in a store where he disagrees with the philosophy of the CEO.   He seems to have no conception of appropriate behavior.    He could not believe how many people disagree with his point of view.    He describes his inappropriate behavior to this young employee as "collateral damage."   



He was fired and he should have been.   I am not sure where he did his degree but logic was probably not a course he took when he was in college.  His company issued the following statement about the incident - (which sounds about right to me) - 
"The actions of Mr. Smith do not reflect our corporate values in any manner. Vante is an equal opportunity company with a diverse workforce, which holds diverse opinions. We respect the right of our employees and all Americans to hold and express their personal opinions, however, we also expect our company officers to behave in a manner commensurate with their position and in a respectful fashion that conveys these values of civility with others." 
Completely unrelated to this story my son posted something the day of what Mike Huckabee called a Chick-Fil-A appreciation day the following message - "I've never seen that many Christians, who lined up at Chick Fil-A today show up to help at a food bank or a homeless shelter - and that is something that Jesus actually asked us to do."