The CEO of a clothing retailer recently sent out a memo to middle managers: Fire all your ugly employees.
An e-mail was recently leaked online in which American Apparel CEO Dov Charney demanded store managers send him pictures of every employee. His master plan: look over every photo personally and fire anyone he considered ugly.
According to the manager who leaked the e-mail, Charney was attempting to “tighten the AA aesthetic” in response to a recent dip in sales. He believed the cause was a lack of beautiful people behind the counters.
It’s a situation that seems ripe for legal action, but there’s a catch: Male and female employees appear to be targeted equally. If Charney was firing homely women while judging men based on performance, you’d bet there’d be a lawsuit coming.
Treating everyone badly, though, is allowed in most cases.
Incidentally, Charney does have plenty of courtroom experience. He’s been sued for sexual harassment multiple times, included allegations that he conducted job interviews in his underwear and gave one female employee a sex toy.
