Fired Social Media Manager Blasts City on Its Own TikTok Handle

The City of Summit, N.J., left out one key part of the firing process, and found out about it the hard way.

Namely, Summit fired its social media manager, but failed to lock him out of its official TikTok account. So he used the medium to get one last laugh.

“Summit NJ fired me as their social media manager but I’m still logged into their TikTok account lmao,” fired social media manager Graham Colligan said, and you guessed it, by way of the city’s TikTok account (via OutKick and NJ.com).

While still employed by the city, Colligan often posted news and reviews of fun things to do and restaurants, sort of acting as a virtual tour guide. Just last week, he helped promote the Summit Diner with a video.

But things changed quickly. After being fired, he used the Summit city handle, @summitdowntown, to trash local businesses and high cost of living in the city, not to mention his former employer.

In one take, he blasted a local mall.

“My old bosses told me to never talk badly about Short Hills Mall so since I don’t work there anymore…” he said on the Summit TiokTok handle. “(The mall is a) mega capitalist corporate America type sh-t. Like, cookie-cutter stealing away from, like, small businesses … just, I don’t f— with it.” 

Needless to say, the videos have since been deleted.

But not before the handle representing Naperville, Ill., watched one of the video and offered up a reply.

“Looking for someone to help launch our TikTok page,” their message read, via NJ.com. “But not someone that will take it over and lock us out.”

Colligan had a response of his own to that one.

“Listen, as long as you treat your employee well, and pay them the amount that you agreed upon and didn’t fire them for going on vacation that you OK’d with three months in advance, I’m sure, like, there’s no reason why someone would lock you out of your account, especially after a month of being fired,” was the message he delivered to Naperville.

Nancy Adams, executive director of Summit Downtown told NJ.com that Colligan had best not cross that line again.

“Summit Downtown Inc. has deleted the content posted on our Tik Tok account by a recalcitrant former employee,” she wrote in an email. “He has been advised that further action will be taken if he attempts to access the social media channel or any SDI platform in the future.”

Colligan began his job in September and was fired in December. It’s hard to know what’s on the horizon for him, but odds are, it will not involve working or living in Summit, N.J., and it may not involve social media, either.