I’m one of the 160 layoffs at VS HQ. I have roughly 9 years with the brand as a contractor/freelancer as well as being full time associate status.
To be crystal clear. They treated me okay from a financial standpoint. I made good money (final salary was 120k + Bonus as a 33 year old manager with no direct reports. Took 10 years to get there though). I got to travel a lot. Even with my wife sometimes on their dime! (Europe a bunch, Asia, Canada, ~20 states. Private Jets. I’ve sat in countless meetings with Les Wexner. Gone to a Fashion Show. All of it. What I never got, was a raise while I worked there, outside the sub-3% cost of living increase…
I was blinded by money. 120k is pretty good in my book. Somewhat decent benefits. WFH. Discounts. 3% 401k match. Etc. Not bad.
What sucks is, I saw how shitty this brand is. How they treat associates. How they treat their store employees. How their former CMO was scum. Their CFO had affairs left and right. How Les treated those close to him. How models were treated. Epstein…And I continued to be loyal. Because they promised change. So many times. We’re different. We’ve evolving. We’re being better.
Blah fuckedity blah.
Nothing changes. It’s all still old white men running this brand. That promises to be for the women of the world. They don’t give a fuck. Lay off 160 people to save 30Mil, but give bonuses to execs for saving money. They do this every couple of years. They did it in fall of 2020 too. And again a few years before. Etc.
They’re leadership is a joke. They are in over their heads. The new store design is terrible and very cheap.
I was told a story about a store opening in Chicago.
The VS head of stores was about to do a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new store. Right before she jokingly said “we should leave this ribbon up, that way we can ask for credit scores before we let customers in! Hahhahahah”.
Senior management joking about customer credit scores…wild! And pretty fucking disturbing.
Another example:
For in-store safety for either customers or associates, you aren’t allowed to put any concerns in writing. AVPs specifically state that all safety communication needs to happen in person so there is no “paper trail” in case of an incident.
The main reason? Bath and Body Works, which used to be under the Lbrands name and sister company of VS. Someone tripped on an extension cord for a mobile POS station and sued (they settled for north of 1M).
Without the paper trail they can claim ignorance.
It’s so fucked up, wild and sad. And there’s so much more…
I wish this post would gain more traction. People need to see how fucked up that brand is.
Also, my boss, who is an AVP was too much of a pussy to be on the video call when I was laid off.
Looking forward to this brand crashing and burning. It’s only a matter of time.
Anyway, just wanted to get that off my chest. I have much more but all of this is fresh in my mind. I’m one of the 160 layoffs at VS HQ. I have roughly 9 years with the brand as a contractor/freelancer as well as being full time associate status.