J.Crew Fires Its VP of Men's Merchandising After Insensitive Posts Over Mass Firings
Crass posts on his Instagram proved enough for another high-profile lay off at the struggling retailer.
After announcing that the retailer would be cutting 175 full-time, mostly corporate positions from its slumping brand after poor first-quarter results, J.Crew is back in the headlines with more bad news. The retailer is reported to have fired its VP of Men’s Merchandising, Alejandro Rhett, after several insensitive Instagram posts making light of the mass firings at HQ. These crass posts in question landed Rhett on the front page of the New York Post with the headline “J. CRUEL,” where Rhett seems to have had a celebratory night out with several colleagues (“survivors”) after personally laying off employees, finished off with The Hunger Games-inspired hashtags (#maytheoddsbeeverinyourfavor). So far, a spokesperson for J.Crew hasn’t commented on Rhett’s official employment status but instead released a statement saying “we do not condone this behavior in any way. Individuals’ actions do not represent the culture of our company – this is not who we are. The tough decisions we made last week were not something we took lightly. We do our best to make decisions with care and compassion for all of our associates. Our values at J.Crew are and have always been about respect, support and consideration for others.” Another stark reminder that your actions on social media can truly have consequences, as if we didn’t know that ourselves.
