Victoria’s Secret is laying off about 15 percent of the brand’s employees at its Columbus, Ohio, headquarters as the beleaguered lingerie chain struggles to reshape its image and the chief executive of its parent company remains under scrutiny for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

The cuts, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday, involved about 50 people and range from senior leaders to junior staff, according to three people with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The timing of the layoffs was unusual in the retail industry just before the key holiday season — and followed an optimistic outlook delivered to investors by the chief of its parent company, Leslie H. Wexner, last month. L Brands, the parent company, also owns Bath & Body Works.

Language in the separation agreement given to at least some laid-off employees seemed to speak to the intense microscope the company finds itself under. The agreement document, which was reviewed by The New York Times, asked departing executives to agree that they would not make any statements to the media about the company, its employees or its operations, and that they would “direct all contacts from the media” regarding the company to Tammy Roberts Myers, an L Brands spokeswoman, or her successor. That language did not appear in a separation agreement from 2017.