Don’t hate Debrahlee Lorenzana because she’s beautiful. Her plight should hasten legislation to protect a group that’s been overlooked for too long — employees who are just too sexy for the workplace.
Ms. Lorenzana is the 33-year-old woman who claims she was fired by Citibank in New York because she was so alluring, her co-workers couldn’t concentrate on their work.
And before she was fired, Ms. Lorenzana claims, her bosses told her she should change her wardrobe. In her gender bias complaint, according to the New York Post, Ms. Lorenzana maintained “that other female colleagues wore similar professional attire.”
That didn’t matter, because — hang on, now — those other women’s “general unattractiveness rendered moot their sartorial choices,” in the words of the complaint.
After complaining to HR about her supervisor’s comments on her wardrobe, Ms. Lorenzana requested a transfer. But apparently her new assignment didn’t go well, and she was canned. So she filed the gender discrimination claim.
Cheapening a serious issue
Gender discrimination and sexual harassment are serious workplace issues — and in our opinion, Ms. Lorenzana’s tale does female employees no service.
In every gender bias/harassment case we’ve ever run across, the victim has wanted as little fanfare as possible. But Ms. Lorenzana and her lawyer decided to take her case to the press — and, inevitably, to the Internet.
Here’s the kicker: She also allowed the Village Voice to post 20-odd photos of her — and as you can see here, a lot of her outfits ain’t exactly workplace appropriate.
So we’re a little skeptical about her true motives here.
But as we said in the first paragraph, perhaps this case should spark new legislation to protect those unfortunates who, through no fault of their own, are so attractive that they’re an irresistible workplace distraction. Maybe it’s a new form of disability.
