A J. Crew executive reportedly fired several employees, then went out drinking and posed for celebratory photos on Instagram that joked about surviving the layoffs.
Alejandro Rhett, vice president of men’s merchandising, delivered news of the firings — which affected 175 employees — to several people on Wednesday, sources told The New York Post.
Rhett then went to a bar in New York City and posed for a series of Instagram photos showing him drinking. The photos were tagged with hashtags like "#hungergames" and "#maytheoddsbeeverinyourfavor."
The hashtags are a reference to the Hunger Games book series, in which characters are forced to fight to the death.
Rhett has since been fired, according to fashion news site Fashion Week Daily. The report cites an unnamed source.
J. Crew declined to confirm or deny the firing and instead issued this statement to Business Insider: "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."
Posted by Alejandro Rhett on Saturday, November 29, 2014
The Post has screenshots of the photographs and captions, which have since been scrubbed from the Internet.
A J. Crew spokesman told the Post that the company "does not condone" Rhett's behavior.
"As soon as we were made aware," of the incident, "the appropriate actions took place," the company said.
