HMV Employee Goes Rogue On Twitter, Tweets About ‘Mass Execution’
An HMV employee went rogue on an official Twitter feed today, candidly chronicling what is likely a set of large layoffs in terms that are not very flattering to the company.
The HMV employee responsible for the rant has not been identified, but the person responsible has engaged in what has become a new sort of “take this job and shove it” of the digital era — tweeting the unpleasant information live as it happened, and probably causing the brand some damage.
It’s no secret that HMV has fallen on some hard times after a storied legacy in British retail. A few weeks back, HMV entered the British equivalency of bankruptcy, and some job losses are to be expected.
But the HMV Twitter debacle also highlights the risk of employee access to social media accounts rapidly going awry in such situations, and ManagementToday culled some of the rogue HMV tweets before the top brass wrested control of the account from the disgruntled and presumably former HMV workers:
‘There are over 60 of us being fired at once! Mass execution, of loyal employees who love the brand … Under usual circumstances, we’d never dare do such as thing as this. However, when the company you dearly love is being ruined … and those hard working individuals, who wanted to make HMV great again, have mostly been fired, there seemed no other choice.”
The HMV rogue tweeter added:
“So really, what have we to lose? It’s been a pleasure folk! Best wishes to you all! … Just overheard our Marketing Director (he’s staying, folks) ask ‘How do I shut down Twitter?’ “
Per The Guardian, HMV’s joint administrators confirmed that layoffs had occurred, but did not address the tweets. In a statement, Nick Edwards said:
“Since our appointment as administrators over two weeks ago, we have been assessing the financial position of HMV … Following this review, a number of redundancies at the head office and distribution centres have been made. Although such decisions are always difficult, it is a necessary step in restructuring the business to enhance the prospects of securing its future as a going concern.”
Below, a screen capture of the HMV rogue Twitter tweets.
