A man with a name like Wade Groom may sound like he was born to sell Lacoste shirts, but, sadly, he got fired from the brand’s Manhattan flagship this week for posting a photo of his paycheck to Instagram. He told Gothamist on Monday:
The bossman called me downstairs and told me to get on a conference call with an HR manager. The HR manager told me that the image somehow got back to the corporate office, and that it infringes our confidentiality agreement, and that I was fired.
Groom was the store’s top-earning sales associate, according to records he supplied to Gothamist. Between his $15-per-hour salary and 3 percent sales commission, he made up to $1,500 a week — about $78,000 per year, assuming the best. “I’m a helluva salesman,” he said (and he’s cute!). But between alimony payments to his ex-wife and taking care of his twin daughters, who live in Brooklyn, he was struggling financially. His paycheck photo is captioned with the following words:
Paycheck. Still silly to me. Ever since I was a kid I’ve thought it was completely insane that we have to work all our lives. I still feel that way. Especially when it’s only enough to live in a third world apartment with shitty everything. Which for some reason in NYC is okay. Anywhere else only trailer trash live this way. I’m done with it.
It’s almost impossible to even read anything in the photo, let alone who his employer is, and he never said anything bad about Lacoste, so his dismissal seems harsh. But we’re also only hearing one side of the story, as Lacoste won’t comment. Either way, this isn’t the first time an employee has been fired or suspended for posting on social media: Remember the Taco Bell guy? And the pot-smoking math teacher? Here’s a suggestion: Just go into the media field, where that kind of behavior gets you book deals.
