“Whether a good or bad thing, people's personal behavior online can reflect on their employer,'' Meredith Olmstead, founding partner and social media/inbound marketing consultant of Social Stairway, said. “For this reason, your employee social media policies must include some language covering this area of employee conduct.”

Nevertheless, Olmstead, who helps develop social media policies along with credit union compliance officers and lawyers, said the Cannon case might prompt cooperatives to include specific information about online behavior that is not acceptable.

Another problem, she said, is that organizations may simply distribute social media policies to employees without any orientation or training.

“Sometimes just having a best practice/good judgement type of conversation with credit union employees could prevent them from making a mistake like that,” she said.

Cannon and her lawyer, Ryan James of Greenville, who is African American, shared their side of the story about how one offensive word sparked a social media storm. MTC declined to comment because it is prohibited by law to publicly discuss personnel matters.

During the early evening hours of Sunday, March 20, Cannon said she was at home scrolling through her Facebook site when she read a comment on her news feed from a prominent Black Lives Matter activist and rapper Tef Poe.

“Dear white people if Trump wins young n***as such as myself are fully hell bent on inciting riots everywhere we go. Just so you know,” Poe tweeted on March 16. Cannon said this tweet was posted on her Facebook newsfeed.

Cannon's response was: “N***as better watch out …. white people are sick of your racist attitude. We will not sit back and watch.”

“I guess that other people looked at me like I said something that's bad, but I didn't mean it the way it came out,” Cannon said. “I was letting people know that [others] are posting ugly, dividing racist comments [and] that is why we've got to stop it. We can't keep being racist, black or white. We're going to stop this division, but [the post] came out all wrong.”

Until she arrived at work on Monday morning, March 21, Cannon said she was unaware that her post had exploded on social media, with hundreds of people leaving related comments on Facebook and a local TV news site.

According to Cannon, people contacted the credit union and threatened to picket the branch and close their accounts.

Cannon's Facebook post, along with a copy of her Facebook page and photo, was posted by Greenville resident Vannesia Taylor Bolt at 7:13 a.m. on Monday, March 21.

“Well I know where I will be this morning!! I will be at MTC FEDERAL CREDIT UNION letting that manager know THIS is how one of THEIR mortgage loan officers GERRI CANNON feels and this is how she REPRESENTS THEIR CREDIT UNION,” Bolt wrote. “This woman is over if people get loans for HOMES!! Wonder how many people Gerri grouped as (“n***as”) [that] she block[ed] from getting mortgage loans. I wonder how MTC thinks it looks to have this woman representing their bank in this way??? I'll find out today. You all should go and ask them about it as well if you feel inclined to! 124 Verdae Boulevard, Greenville, SC.”

Hundreds of people shared Bolt's post.

Though MTC declined to comment about this incident, William H. Love, the credit union's president/CEO, told a local TV station that Cannon had no lending authority and was responsible for collecting applications and data for loans.

Later that morning, Bolt posted a video of her meeting with an unidentified MTC employee. The employee appeared to look uncomfortable when she reviewed the post, told Bolt the credit union was investigating the matter and assured her this sort of incident never occurred at the credit union.

“We are saddened about the recent Facebook post involving an employee,” MTC posted on its website at 2 p.m. March 21. “It is in no way reflective of MTC Federal beliefs, values or policies. Furthermore, the person responsible for posting comments on their personal Facebook page is no longer employed with MTC Federal Credit Union.”

Although Bolt said the credit union did the right thing, she said MTC should have the past mortgage applications handled by Cannon reviewed by the appropriate authorities.

By 10:30 p.m., hundreds if not thousands of people commented on Cannon's Facebook post. Gerri Cannon got nearly 60,000 searches and Gerri Cannon MTC Federal Credit Union received more than 8,200 Facebook searches.

“My heart is broken that the whole world thinks that I'm a racist,” Cannon said. “Do you really think I would have posted something like that if I thought it would have made me lose my job?”

Cannon, 62, who joined the credit union four years ago, said she had an unblemished work record and planned to retire in about three years. After all of this negative publicity, she is concerned about landing a new job.

Cannon admitted that after she read the Tef Poe tweet, she let her emotions get the best of her because she thought his comments were hateful and divisive.

She also said that she used the word n***as because Poe used it, and she was not aware that the word was offensive to African Americans.

James, Cannon's lawyer, noted that although the word n***as is used by some African Americans as a term of endearment, other African Americans consider the word offensive. When n***as is used by whites, African Americans consider it to be offensive, James said.

“One hundred percent the emotions got the best of her,” he said. “And as such that she's being labeled as a hateful racist, I can state definitely that's not the case. The woman sat in my office and cried her eyes out the other day.”

But Bolt is not buying Cannon's or James' side of the story.

“She typed those words. No one forced her to,” Bolt said. “She typed how she felt. The words she chose reflected her true attitude, not the words her legal counsel OKs for her to use after the fact.”

Bolt also doesn't believe that Cannon was unaware that the word n***as would be offensive.

“Her former employers made it clear they knew it was offensive and they apparently wanted nothing to do with those who, in my opinion, are dim enough to think it wasn't offensive,” she said. “Mr. Tef Poe makes his own word choices and so does Ms. Cannon. Gerri Cannon is responsible for her actions and shouldn't use someone else's actions as an excuse for hers.”

Michael C. Jacobson, who worked as an attorney defending employers against wrongful termination, discrimination, medical malpractice and general liability lawsuits, said an employer could fire an employee for making a racial slur even if it's written on a personal social media site.

However, there may be some exceptions, said Jacobson, who is also a legal editor for XperHR, a human resources site.

For example, if an employer has a policy or protocol that provides second or third chances for misconduct, that protocol would have to be followed. Another exception is if an employee is under contract, either written or implied, which would control how or when termination can occur in response to an incident.

However, there are legal protections for employees who post comments on the web, according to employment law attorney Lisa Guerin, who has authored numerous books, including “Smart Policies for Workplace Technologies.”

In a nolo.com blog post, she noted in some states, disciplining an employee for a political post such as endorsing a candidate could be illegal. Employees may also be protected for posting safety hazards or illegal activity at the workplace. In addition, employees may circumvent disciplinary action if they post concerns about workplace discrimination, harassment, violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act, or wage and hour violations, according to Guerin.

Additionally, under the National Labor Relations Act, employees who post comments about low wages, substandard benefits, a difficult manager or long work hours could have a legal claim, Guerin said.