Levi Strauss Is Going Public Again Hereã¢â‚¬â„¢s What You Need to Know
Before Covid-19, Jennifer Sey'due south path seemed pretty straightforward.
As chief marketing officer of Levi Strauss with a twenty-year tenure at the company, Sey had been on the CEO track. She was even promoted to make president in Oct 2020.
"The brand was performing actually well. I had a good yr in review, and I was recognized as a strong leader," Sey recounted to Know Your Value.
RELATED: How I went from elite gymnast to global brand president of Levi's
Sey, 52, never would take guessed that, a year after, she would have to resign from Levi Strauss as a result of her views on Covid-19. She said she rejected a $1 million buyout and so she would be able to tell her story publicly.
Caught in a politicized battle
According to Sey, what started every bit an effort to get kids dorsum into in-person schooling during Covid-19 ballooned into a controversy over free speech and political polarization.
During the pandemic, Sey started condign increasingly vocal nigh school closures in her city, San Francisco. Equally the mother of four children and sole breadwinner of the household—her husband Daniel is a stay-calm dad—Sey was concerned that the city's strict school closures were affecting a whole generation of children.
"I constitute it troubling, because children were being harmed, and the most disadvantaged were existence harmed the about," said Sey. "Nosotros've read about the psychological harms, the social isolation, the learning loss—these things were all being denied. This felt so incorrect to me."
Sey has 2 higher-historic period children, a first grader and a preschooler. In 2020, her second-youngest child entered kindergarten virtually.
"What was apropos to me was that his first experience at school was so horrible. You lot want them to like school. He didn't get any of that. He was lone on a figurer looking at a screen," Sey said.
Sey began posting on her social media pages about San Francisco'southward closures, which accept been amongst the strictest in the nation. The closures pitted a group of parents in a long, ongoing boxing against the district school board, and Sey was heavily involved.
To Sey, it was simply about the kids. In the broader political conversation, however, Democrats have typically leaned toward stricter schoolhouse closures during Covid-19, while Republicans take spoken in favor of keeping schools open. San Francisco is traditionally Democratic.
Sey moved her family to the more than moderate urban center of Denver, where they have been enjoying in-person learning.
"Kids shouldn't be a political issue," said Sey. "But they have been made into one."
Rejecting a $i million severance
As Sey's post-obit grew, she alleged that, at offset, Levi Strauss quietly tried to get her to stop posting well-nigh the issue. According to Sey, a loftier-ranking executive told her that she had what it took to become CEO, but that the simply thing continuing in her style was her social media presence. Nonetheless, she kept posting and attending meetings.
Things came to a fever pitch when Sey appeared on the right-leaning Fob News show, "The Ingraham Bending" to discuss the upshot.
"I probably disagree with 90 percent of what she thinks, and that's OK. Nosotros had reached out to the other, more than mainstream media platforms, and no ane else was willing to engage, so I stand past my decision," said Sey.
The advent, however, set up off a firestorm of criticism on social media and internally within Levi Strauss. Sey said that employees defendant her of being anti-science and anti-LGBTQ due to her affiliation with Ingraham.
According to Sey, in January, she was told that there would non be a place for her in the company. She resigned.
Ancel Martínez, managing director of business and financial communications at Levi Strauss & Co., said in a statment that "this is non a case of Levi'south stifling dissent." Martínez added, "Our company supported Jen Sey'due south personal advancement on many issues. All the same, Jen went far beyond calling for school reopenings, ofttimes using her platform to criticize public health guidelines and denounce elected officials and government scientists. As a top executive, her words and actions effectively undermined the company's wellness and safety policies, creating confusion and business organisation amidst employees. Jen cynically accuses the company of abandoning its values. That'due south simply untrue. We chose our values by putting safe beginning and expected our executive officers to do the aforementioned. Instead, Jen chose to leave the company."
The company also insisted, "Sey was non muzzled by an NDA or offered any written agreement that would have prevented her from speaking out on whatsoever public issues; she therefore never turned downward any amount of coin in guild to retain her ability to speak freely."
Sey alleged that she was offered a $1 million severance bundle, which would come with a standard non-disclosure understanding.
"I thought long and hard most information technology. I thought I might not be employable anywhere else because of the issue. I'm the sole breadwinner of the family," said Sey. "Ultimately, I decided that I couldn't agree to it, because I didn't experience similar I did anything wrong and I wanted to exist able to talk almost what happened. It felt hypocritical to accept it."
She continued: "I don't want to live in a world where advocating for kids is an Hr violation."
Sey said she rejected the offer, and was officially costless to speak out.
A history of advocacy
Sey is not new to advocacy and public backlash.
Beginning at age vi, Sey worked as a professional person gymnast, condign the U.Due south. Women's All-Effectually National Champion in 1986. Later retiring at age 19, she began speaking out about the abuses of children within the sport.
Sey wrote a memoir in 2008 chosen "Chalked Upwardly," which detailed some of the grueling, calumniating practices toward children in gymnastics, including starvation tactics and extreme analytical.
"This was long before Larry Nassar. It's difficult to believe now, only no one was talking most this.
There was this existent push to protect the reputations of those in power in the sport, whether information technology was USA coaches, national coaches, it was so intense. The response was to phone call me a liar and a grifter. I was threatened with lawsuits and even violence," she said.
Sey became a producer on the 2020 documentary "Athlete A," which chronicled the Larry Nassar instance and the system that enabled him to abuse immature female gymnasts.
The experience emboldened Sey when it came to fighting schoolhouse closures.
"It solidified my resolve when people finally saw the truth and accepted it. Information technology fabricated me feel like the truth here would be revealed also, that airtight schools were a terrible and unnecessary damage to children, and that children were being asked to carry a terribly unfair burden," she said.
The adjacent chapter.
Now, a calendar month subsequently the resignation, Sey is looking ahead. She said she is lucky to accept a fiscal cushion that will give her some animate room before deciding her adjacent move. She is looking to write another book.
"I didn't run into my life going this mode. Just I am optimistic most the hereafter. I'grand excited in that I'm sort of untethered now, and I can abet for the things I care well-nigh," said Sey.
Sey has no regrets, and said that the experience has made her more indomitable in pursuing her causes.
"The only time I've been disappointed in myself is when I haven't been true to my ain values," said Sey. "Silence and obedience in gymnastics is drilled into yous, so I used to be quiet, which people laugh at now. I mean, I really found my value."
Sey offered advice to people who are forced to choose between their careers and their causes.
"You have to decide what matters to you. What matters to y'all more than? The fight that yous're fighting, the thing y'all wanna speak up about, or does it matter to yous more to keep the task and stay on the path that you're on—which is a very understandable and respectable path?" she asked. "At the cease of the day, you have to decide."
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Source: https://www.msnbc.com/know-your-value/business-culture/levi-s-executive-jennifer-sey-quits-job-rejects-severance-so-n1289444
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