As a conservative BUSINESS owner I have no problem with her freedom of speech nor the decision of the business to fire her. We ***** all the time about employees that CANT be fired and now that one is we *****. This is how a free market works, deal with it.
If her services are valuable someone else will happily pick her up.
Every business has to have people they can trust at the management level. It is highly unlikely that the woman was hired to bop in and take over every single little thing. But, it is also highly likely that she though she was. OR, she saw an opportunity to extort money if she waited long enough. I have worked in places where some horrible things have been said about staff and patients. I have tried not to say them myself because my role as a nurse at any level is to advocate for the patient. You can't advocate for the patient if you openly detest him/her and you can't manage your staff if you are backbiting them. This woman clearly had an agenda when she took the job, to become Paula Deen, LLC.
I don't know what Paula Deen did or did not say, or did or did not do. But she is one of my most admired people and will stay that way for two reasons. 1) she overcame a mental illness that few ever overcome. 2) She took something ordinary and made millions at it.
It is not unusual for there to be usurpers in her type of business, because it is so ordinary that everyone thinks they can do it. But, reality is, it takes creativity and talent. And only Paula Deen gets to be Paula Deen, LLC.