Netflix has reportedly fired three senior marketing executives who were caught insulting their bosses on a Slack chat.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the criticisms were levelled at chief marketing officer Bozoma Saint John, and vice president of original films marketing Jonathan Helfgot, among others.

THR reports that Helfgot was “extremely reluctant” to fire the employees, arguing that venting privately was a part of working in an organisation, but directives to fire the three came from higher up.

Co-CEO Ted Sarandos (pictured above) addressed the firing on Linkedin, writing:

“Very early on at Netflix, Reed Hastings wrote a culture memo for the company with Patty McCord, then our head of talent. At its heart was the notion of integrity and feedback, which they described as ‘You only say things about fellow employees you say to their face’.

“What happened here was unfortunately not simply venting on Slack or a single conversation. These were critical, personal comments made over several months about their peers (not their management as suggested by The Hollywood Reporter) – including during meetings when those peers were talking or presenting,” he said.

“This is entirely inconsistent with those values, which is why their manager fired them. It’s also worth noting that we don’t proactively monitor Slack or email. The Slack channel was open so anyone could access the conversations even though the employees concerned thought it was private.”