Woman who flipped off Trump's motorcade fired from government contractor job

If you read this column at all, you know that I am no fan of Barack Obama or of his presidency. Or of his policies. Or his worldview. Or of his personality. Pretty much just about anything at all about the guy. Not. A. Fan. So what if he walked in right now to the Crew's Inn in Mount Clemens, Michigan, where I'm sitting and writing this column? What if he walked right up to my table? There's hardly anyone else here. What would I say? What would I do?

I'll tell you what? I would stand up, offer my hand and say, "Hello, Mr. President. It's an honor to meet you." Why would I do that when I don't have any use for the guy? Because I believe in treating people with kindness and respect, and because however much I may dislike the job he did as president, I don't wish him any harm. And that includes emotional harm. It's not a goal of mine to send him away flustered and upset, as if that's going to make him say, "Wow, I really learned my lesson about what a bad president I was!" If anything is going to convince Obama of that, which I seriously doubt, there are plenty of well-reasoned arguments out there about how bad his presidency was. He can read them if he wants to. I accomplish nothing positive by being personally nasty to him. So if this unlikely scenario were ever to occur, I would be nice. That's the best way to be. If you're the type of person who feels the need to be personally nasty toward those with whom you disagree politically, I would encourage you to take a fresh look at yourself and consider whether that's really a good way to be. And that brings us to Juli Briskman. Briskman, a 50-year-old Virginia resident and employee of Akima LLC - which is a contractor of the federal government - was riding her bike the other day when President Trump's motorcade happened to drive by. Ms. Briskman is not a fan of the president, so she decided to give him the finger. That moment was captured on camera, and when she saw the photo, she decided to make it her Facebook profile photo. We can't show you the photo because it's copyrighted by Getty Images, but you can see it at this link:

When she returned to work that Monday, Oct. 30, she informed the company’s human resources department. Briskman, a 50-year-old mother of two, was fired the next day. “They said, ‘We’re separating from you,'” Briskman said. “Basically, you cannot have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene.’” Briskman, who worked in marketing and communications for the company for a little more than six months, said she pointed out to the executives that the incident didn’t happen when she was on the clock and that the social media posts didn’t mention her employer. At a meeting Tuesday, her bosses told her she violated the company’s media policy by posting the photo as her profile picture on Twitter and Facebook. They also said the photo could end up hurting the business because it was a government contractor.

While Akima dismissed her, she said, the company only reprimanded a male employee who posted lewd comments on his Facebook page that used the company as his cover photo. She said the guy called somebody a “f—ing Libtard a–hole” on Facebook. “How is that any less ‘obscene’ than me flipping off the president?” she told the Huffington Post. “How is that fair?”

Here's a tip: If you do something nasty, unprofessional and inappropriate, that might get you fired. If that happens, it's 100 percent on you. If you feel someone else deserved the same fate and didn't receive it, the fact remains: You did something nasty, unprofessional and inappropriate. Your fault. Your problem. Not anyone else's. I have no idea if the other situation is comparable, but it doesn't matter. Her actions are her own. She flipped off the president of the United States. If you're an adult and you don't understand that's unacceptable behavior, I'm not really sure how to help you. And that's for anyone, no matter who they are - and no matter who the president is - let alone for someone who works for a government contractor. When you work for a government contractor, that means the president is the chief executive officer of your client. This is like me flipping the bird to Herman and expecting to still be writing for this site the following day. (And yes, I'm a contractor for what it's worth.) But why would I do that? I like the man for one thing, but even if he was driving me crazy in some way - and hey, we've worked together 12 years so I guarantee you it's happened in both directions - there's no reason to be a mean, nasty jerk.

But if I did, that would surely be the end of this gig, as it should be. That's what happens when you don't treat people well. Now, I suppose she could offer the excuse that she acted out of impulse in the moment. The problem with that excuse, though, is that later on when there was a photo circulating around, she actually went to the trouble of making it her Facebook profile pic. She wanted people to know she did it. Even though she should have understood that could present a problem for her employer. And her excuse is classic that she was off the clock when she did it/ Why should that matter? It's still an action that's at least potentially harmful to her company. That's like robbing your company's headquarters and saying you shouldn't be fired for it because you did it after hours. When you were on the clock, hey, you worked hard! So yes, of course she deserved to be fired, not only because she acted contrary to the interests of her employer but also because she just acted like a jerk. I suppose she'll need to find a new job now, and she'll probably hope not to get fired from it. Here's a tip that might help: Don't give people the finger. No matter who it is. It's not nice and people don't like it, and nothing good will happen if you do. This woman is 50 years old. So am I. I'm having a hard time believing she needed that explained to her.

Dan Calabrese——Bio and Archives

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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