NEW YORK CITY, NY – A woman caught on camera dumping the contents of and stealing a city-owned trashcan thematically decorated for a New York Knicks championship parade has been identified as a 40-year-old executive with JPMorgan Chase. While the company has since terminated the woman, critics online are coming to her defense, claiming her firing was a step too far.
According to a report from the New York Post, Angie Báez served as JPMorgan Chase’s executive director of community and industry engagement for card and connected commerce following a promotion from her prior position as the company’s executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) before the pilfering incident resulted in losing her job.
The video at the center of the debacle began making the rounds earlier in June prior to Báez being identified as the purported culprit, where an individual can be seen adorned in Knicks gear dumping the contents of the city-owned trashcan outfitted in a synonymous color scheme to the woman’s attire.
While there appears to be a shared consensus online that dumping garbage onto a city sidewalk so as to make a clean getaway with a trashcan is not the brightest idea, some individuals believe JPMorgan Chase firing her over the alleged theft is an overreaction to the situation.
Some of the critics coming to Báez’s defense claim that the woman allegedly stealing city-owned property has “nothing to do” with her role at a financial institution, and in a literal sense that would be correct.
Indeed, this woman did not steal the trashcan while on the clock and it’s not like the trashcan was the property of JPMorgan Chase, but there’s an intersectionality of moral and ethical standards at play here that normal people can see plain-as-day: getting caught in a brazen act of theft while holding an executive-level position at a financial institution is a problem.
Every day, people all over the country are fired for criminal and non-criminal acts which didn’t specifically occur on company time or involved company property because the nature of the actions alone illustrates a level of risk where employers are free to sever ties with the employee.
Commercial truck drivers are likely to find themselves in the unemployment line if they get hemmed up for a DUI in a personal vehicle.
Daycare workers might get the boot if a CPS investigation involving their own kids uncovers questionable treatment of children. Cops who get arrested for criminally stupid behavior while off duty typically never resume duty.
This isn’t a novel concept, ill-advised or illegal behavior lateral to someone’s professional duties is a recipe for losing one’s job, regardless of whether one is an entry-level employee at a fast food joint or an executive at a Fortune 500 company.
So, if someone in the financial/banking industry gets caught stealing something, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when they get fired.
For those clamoring that Báez’s termination was a step too far, they’re either woefully inept to the abovementioned concept of lateral behaviors or they just enjoy making contrarian rage bait online.
Perhaps the icing on this trash-laden cake was that if Báez performed a quick search online, she would’ve found that the same trashcan she pilfered was available for sale for just under $170.
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