Topshop: ‘I Found Out From A Tweet I Lost My Job’

Imagine finding out you had lost your livelihood in the middle of a pandemic via a tweet.

That was the frustrating case for thousands of Topshop employees after ASOS celebrated its purchase of the brand on Twitter at 7.45 am on February 1st. The finer details were soon revealed that the online retailer had bought four brands - Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT - from Sir Phillip Green’s Arcadia group for £295m, with at least £50million of it reportedly going straight to Green. All Topshop stores are to close and the 2500+ store employees of Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge staff, meanwhile, were left devastated and angered by the lack of tact or transparency concerning their employment future.

'I found out from a tweet that I had lost my job and then a few hours later received a pretty vague email from Deloitte, the administrators, explaining the sale of the business,' Christina, 23, a shop floor advisor at Topshop Manchester Arndale told me on Tuesday. 'The email did not provide any answers to leaving dates, pay queries or redundancy.'

Some are fearful about speaking out in case it affects their expected redundancy package. Leanne (not her real name), a senior visual merchandising staffer who has worked for Topshop for 19 years, told me she was 'devastated' about the handling of the situation.

'We all knew there was a possibility this could be the outcome and to a certain extent expected it but this experience was made extremely hurtful [by] waking up and finding out we were unemployed through a celebration post made by ASOS,' she said. 'I’m absolutely gutted about the store closures, not just for my job and employees but for the high street.'

'People whose stores closed due to the pandemic had to go in and close them but everyone who still had their stores open up until yesterday’s news hasn’t been instructed,' Leanne added. 'Predictably, we’ll have to too.'

The high street has long felt the threat of extinction because of increasing online consumer habits and it was no secret that Topshop was in trouble. Arcadia group fell into administration in November last year, fifty Topshop stores had already begun the process of closing down and recently its flagship store was put up for sale.

As a former employee of the 'Big Topshop', I was saddened by the end of an iconic eraand wrote about my bittersweet memories of employment at 214 Oxford Street. It led to an invite to a Topshop alumni Facebook group and over the last few weeks I’ve witnessed past and present employees of the brand share their own memories, worries and frustrations with the company. It’s how I connected with Christina, who has been working for Topshop since she was 18. It was her first and only job and now she is worried that she cannot find another.

'Due to the downfall of the business, many of us were looking for new jobs anyway, however, the pandemic came along and retail jobs became scarce,' she says. 'I also didn’t receive the first aid certificate for the course they sent me on so I couldn’t provide it when looking for other jobs - I recently was rejected for an interview at Aldi.'

Women are likely to be most adversely affected by the demise of the Arcadia group. Retail is the largest source of private-sector employment in the UK and, according to the Work Foundation’s No Returns study, employs approximately 2.8 million people. Women make up 58% of that number and over the last ten years have seen the most job losses. Now even more are out of work because of Topshop’s demise.

'I feel heartbroken for all the colleagues I know personally and those who I do not,' Christina said. 'A good percentage of those 13,000 [Arcadia] employees will be women, some with children, some with debt, all with responsibilities and applying for the same roles at the same time. I live in a large city and it’s hard to get a job here so I worry for the women in employment dead zones.'

Many of the female staffers I spoke with pointed to institutional sexism at the company which had allegedly created a toxic work environment. Christina claims her and female colleagues’ complaints of sexual harassment went unresolved after being reported to senior management. Two ex-employees also claim the company failed to support them as working mothers.

'After my first child, I felt I was be managed out by my assistant manager who didn’t value me as a manager and a mother,' says Amy, who worked for 15 years in management at Topshop and Topman. 'The business didn’t support flexible working at all.'

'I was the only manager that had kids and I was the one who was shunned,' said Jane (not her real name), a brand manager who left the company in November 2019 after 6.5 years of employment. 'I was told I wasn’t committed to the brand enough as I couldn’t switch days and times without sorting out childcare first.'

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It’s clear that a significant amount of Topshop staffers had been mourning its death long before Arcadia went into administration. 'I have very fond memories and met amazing people but things turned sour about six years ago when Topshop became unrecognisable,' Leanne said. 'We began to feel just like a number especially in the past two years where there were changes made every hour and we were expected to adhere to them suddenly with 50% staff cuts.'

'In my store we all worked for each other and were a real family but were made to feel inferior to Head Office,' Amy says. 'Decisions were being made by people who didn’t understand store dynamics and challenges. Lots of last-minute knee jerk reactions and U-turns made planning so much harder and frustrated teams who felt Head Office didn’t value opinions or workers at shop level.'

The future is uncertain for so many of these Topshop staffers with jobs scarcely available in the current climate. The Topshop alumni Facebook community has been a welcome support offering a safe space to share advice, solidarity and opportunities. For those members who are newly unemployed, all they can do is hope and wait.

'I have no idea how I’m going to pay my bills for the foreseeable future and that is terrifying,” Christina says. “But I’m sure I’ll be okay in the end.'

Grazia has reached out to Topshop for comment.

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