The J Crew executive who landed on the front page of the NY Post this week ("Retail #hungergames")—after drinking, gloating, and Instagramming a few hours after the announcement that 175 of his colleagues had been laid off—has reportedly been fired.
Alejandro Rhett, 31, the company's former VP of men's merchandising, had been the one to deliver the bad news to his underlings (about 10 percent of its staff) about the firings on Thursday. He and his still-employed colleagues then headed to Manhattan's Linen Hall bar, where they tagged Instagram photos of themselves as they smiled, imbibed and hashtagged pithy things like, "#damnitfeelsgoodtobeagangster," "#gonegirl," "hungergames" and "#maytheoddsbeeverinyourfavor."
A company spokesman told the Post, "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." According to Fashion Weekly Daily, Rhett was fired late on Thursday after the story broke.
The Daily Mail notes that the other employees who appear in the Instagram photos—identified as as Julie Stamos, Vanessa de Jesus and Andrew Ruth—could still be on the chopping block as well. A source told them the Instagrams showed "poor judgment," and added, "It's just inappropriate that you'd be out drinking when people on your team had been laid off."
The layoffs seem to have come on the heels of a first-quarter earnings report that shows a loss of nearly $521 million, which has been largely attributed to the massive failure of the Tilly, a crop-top women’s sweater that apparently is cursed. Perhaps they should refocus their energies on their most beloved item.
