A man posted his paycheck on Instagram to protest the high cost of living in New York City. As a result, 31-year-old Wade Groom was fired last Wednesday from his job of three months as a salesman for Lacoste.
At the time of writing, the paycheck photo is gone and Wade Groom’s Instagram account header simply reads, “Oops.”
According to a report in Metro, the salesman posted his paycheck about two weeks before he was fired. It was supposedly in a private area where the world at large couldn’t see it.
As a Lacoste salesman, Groom earned a base pay of $15 an hour plus a three percent commission on his sales. In his biggest week, he sold almost $40,000 worth of merchandise.
So he was earning good money . But the father of twins says that he can only afford a studio apartment in Brooklyn.
According to Groom, he posted his paycheck to Instagram as “an artistic and personal statement…it’s only enough to pay for my…third-world studio.”
He told AOL that he was the store’s best salesman and indeed the top Lacoste salesperson for the entire US. The paycheck was posted not to insult Lacoste but to prove he was earning what he said he did.
But he said Lacoste fired him for violating their confidentiality agreement.
Lacoste told AOL they wouldn’t comment.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. A person has little to gain by revealing that they have money on social media . And they often have a lot to lose.
Clearly, someone in Wade Groom’s trusted circle doesn’t like him. His private post didn’t just waltz off Instagram and onto his manager’s desk by itself.
His latest Instagram post left last night said, “Sleep. Long weird day. Need a job…”
I would suspect that he won’t have to wait long. A good salesman can always find work.
But maybe next time Wade Groom cashes a nice commission, he should refrain from posting the paycheck to Instagram.
