Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

J Crew vice president 'fired for mocking staff online' hours after they were made redundant

His instagram posts came just hours after he personally told 175 staff members that they were going to be made redundant, it has been reported

Siobhan Fenton
Monday 22 June 2015 09:48 BST
Comments
J. Crew Vice President of Menswear, Alejandro Brett, has reported been let go from the company
J. Crew Vice President of Menswear, Alejandro Brett, has reported been let go from the company (Facebook)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A senior executive at the US fashion brand J Crew has reportedly been fired after "mocking" staff redundancies in social media posts.

Alejandro Rhett, the vice president of the company's menswear department, was responsible for personally telling 175 staff on Wednesday that they were to be let go.

Just hours after delivering the bad news, however, it was reported that he uploaded photos to Instagram of himself partying and joking about the job losses.

In posts to the image sharing site which have since been deleted, Rhett was reportedly seen to jump for joy, pose for an impromptu fashion shoot and mockingly refer to the Hunger Games films in which contestants are forced to fight to the death.

In one shot, Rhett was reportedly pictured extending his middle finger to the camera.

In another, he allegedly posted the hashtags #hungergames #maytheoddsbeeverinyourfavour.

Another post reportedly showed him enjoying himself with friends at a bar with the caption #nofunhere.

His actions have been criticised as insensitive in light of the job losses which he had announced just hours earlier. The 175 staff who have lost their jobs made up around a tenth of J Crew employees.

The behaviour was reported on the front page of The New York Post under the headline ‘J Cruel’.

However, Rhett appears to have now been given similar news by the company as he has reportedly been let go as a result of his behaviour.

It is reported that he was fired on Thursday afternoon by the fashion brand.

J Crew told Fashion Week Daily: “We do not condone this behaviour 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 our associates.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in