The anonymous employee wrote to Jezebel, "As an American Apparel employee I am appalled at being told how I have to groom my eyebrows. I am also appalled that this rule seems only for women. I love the idea of "made in USA," but i do not love the idea of being told how to wear my eyebrows by a disgusting creep." Most workplaces do have guidelines for acceptable standards of employee appearance. One might even argue that similar standards are required of men in that some workplaces require men to be clean shaven. On that note, here's a picture of Dov Charney:
This isn't Charney's first crack at regulating employee appearance this year. Back in July another American Apparel tipster wrote to Gawker: "Our company holds weekly conference calls that every store manager world/nation wide are required to tune into. We discuss sales, which stores need displays, which items are doing well, etc. Summer is supposed to be a great sales season for AA. Needless to say, with the state of the economy, sales haven't been going so well. Dov usually gets on the conference calls and talks to people, but one week, he went on a huge tirade and made stores that weren't doing well send in group photos. Why, you ask? He made store managers across the country take group photos of their employees so that he could personally judge people based on looks. He is tightening the AA 'aesthetic,' and anyone that he deems not good-looking enough to work there, is encouraged to be fired. This is blatant discrimination based on looks.
Dov personally judged each person in group photos that were sent in, and if you weren't to his liking, then boy... watch out. The comments that he made were raging from childish ones to insulting ones. Managers that don't comply with these new standards are afraid of losing their jobs. Employees who aren't up to Dov's "look" and whose work ethic is "just ok" are being targeted and scrutinized and the minute they make small mistakes, they are being fired. But it's only because Dov wants to weed out the "ugly people." It's ironic that he would rather have gorgeous slackers who don't move the product [or lift a finger] working there than normal looking people who are really aren't that bad looking, but are A+ sellers and great at customer service. The real irony here is that he is no [looker], himself. He's asking for a class-action lawsuit and i hope that when it rains, it rains hard. Worst place to work, ever. This is happening at many stores across the country."
Charney fired back by contacting the Globe and Mail denying the allegations made by the anonymous tipster. "At American Apparel, we strive to hire salespeople who have an enthusiasm for fashion and retail and who themselves have good fashion sense," Charney said. "But this does not necessarily mean they have to be physically attractive."
Maybe American Apparel employees should jump ship to Abercrombie & Fitch... unless of course they have prosthetic limbs.
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