Former CFO Now Unemployed, on Food Stamps After Viral Video

we got milk chicken ground beef Adam and Amy Smith are on their weekly Supermarket run in Portland Oregon there's free range chicken we love your chicken and it's $5.99 we'll take it Adam graduated top of his class at business school a go-getter high flyer but now this father of four is shopping with food stamps Tomatoes no no no that's too much depending on the price oh never mind in some ways it feels like I completely failed from 200 Grand a year you're on food stamps yeah my voice is cracking right now because I never thought I'd be there it's humbling he's talking about his spectacular fall for the very first time talking to us we were living in our dream housee it was beautiful on 3 and 1/2 acres Smith lost that beautiful home in Tucson Arizona after he was fired from his job as CFO of a medical device manufacturer 2 and a half years ago the reason an Infamous internet incident spawned by Nationwide protests at Chick-fil-A now one of the most popular fast food chains in the country is under Fire this morning you may recall the kafuffle erupted when the chicken chains president took a public stand against same seex marriage confirming that the fast food chain is the new Ground Zero in the culture wars over gay marriage count Adam Smith a casualty of that war all because of a 2minute 20 second YouTube video that started like this well I'm waiting in line I'm next in line here I go Smith's humbling experience wasn't caught on camera by someone else no he's the only person who pressed Z people have to have their Chick-fil-A anti-gay breakfast sandwich you'd filmed yourself and then you made the decision yeah you posted it I did it yeah we'll get back to Smith in the details of his cautionary Tale in just a minute listen hitting the sandb button we do it all the time without really thinking sending emails texts tweets selfies videos out into the world it can be lifechanging career ending just ask these people the school bus driver posting a beer swilling selfie the woman who came to the office dressed as a Boston Marathon bombing victim and the naughty 10th grade math teacher known as crunk bear posting Saucy pics and Drug talk fired fired fired every time I look at hiring somebody I go and gather their digital footprint from every Source I can get shark tanks Kevin oi is not alone most companies now mine included employ people that specialize in just watching what's happening on all the platforms remember PR exec Justine sacko she learned that the hard way when she tweeted going to Africa hope I don't get AIDS just kidding I'm quite right yeah she's a PR executive and she kind of chuckled to herself this was at heo airports press send she says it's meant to be a comment on White Privilege but people didn't get the joke and the Tweet went viral while she was in the air heading to Africa she had no idea a hashtag started to Trend worldwide has Justine landed yet because everybody was so excited about Justine landing and realizing that her life would never be the same again back now to Adam Smith who in the summer of 2012 decided to protest against Chick-fil-A what's wrong with Chick-fil-A in your mind they um donated to anti-gay groups there were anti- and pro protests chickfila now Smith got in line at his local drive-thru there's a long line of cars too I don't know if you can see but it's uh here's what happen awesome you know why I'm getting the free water right iot because Chick-fil-A is a hateful Corporation and then he got carried away I don't know how you live with yourself and work here I don't understand it this is a horrible Corporation with horrible values you deserve better I got emotional about it and said things to the cleric that you regret I don't regret the stand that I took but I regret the way I talked to her I just can't stand the hate you know it got to stop it's got to stop guys Smith pressed sand went to bed woke up went to work and the receptionist uh first thing Big Eyes Adam what did you do the voicemail is completely full and it's full of bomb threats you were asked to resign yeah he refused and was fired losing his six figure salary and stock options worth it was over a million dollars and it's gone it was taken when I lost my my employment the money that beautiful home all gone they had to Super downsize no big house no space for big toys this is Sterling open give all we own to Goodwill oh is that your Easy Bake Oven is that one of your favorite toys you we had yeah we had a jauz you had a Jacuzzi what are you fishing for we're getting off the point here Smith quickly apologized to the cleric he got angry with I am so very sorry for the way I spoke to you she has forgiven him I do forgive Adam Smith I think he realizes how bad of a decision it was to make that tape but apparently some others have not okay so fired from one CFO job Adam applied for another 1200 M Away in Portland Oregon he got it the family had to move but a job a fresh start hooray I hesitate to even ask what happened next uh it was 2 weeks on the job I got called into the cfo's office and they said that uh you should have told us about the chick f- a video you're fired so he started showing the so-called chicken incident video at job interviews to get it out in the open rejection rejection rejection the constant rejection that he's had going forward that's been really brutal wife Amy is now the family bread winner this might sound silly but change your name dye your hair grow a different beard all things that were recommended and some of those things I tried occasionally he'd get an offer then always a call or a voicemail like this I just don't want to see this be a distraction or any backlash some of the others have expressed some concern Adam Smith self-made man reduced to nothing his kids even trying to find ways out of his hell making a shark tank like pitch I said I'll do this you do you do this [Applause] it's $15 $15 okay should we put this on TV then huh why would we do that cuz we need the money and have food for our family Adam's son Sawyer se's a silver lining in all of this you want him to have a full-time job no I don't why not cuz I want him to play okay so this is the benefit is that when he hasn't been working he's been hanging out with you guys that's good right most people eventually can and move on from the online faath Justine sacko of the off-color AIDS and Africa joke eventually landed another PR job but not Adam Smith it's now nearly 3 years and he's still unemployed he's turned to meditation and the wisdom of Buddha I'm not a Buddhist I just found that to be really helpful he also sent us this video of him and his kids dancing to the song Shake It Off ah the wisdom of Taylor Swift Shake It Off how long are you going to be made to pay for a mistake I don't know I do know that when you watch it for the first time I don't know how you live with yourself and work here I don't understand it it feels like it just happened it's always going to be there can't take it [Music] down

Channel: ABC News

Views: 6,000,757

Keywords: Adam Smith, chick fil a, chick fil a cfo, cfo fired, chick fil a video, adam smith fired, viral video, abc, abcnews

Id: 8LqoLBQ68Uw

Length: 8min 28sec (508 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 28 2015