The after are taken from e-mails we got from existing and former American Apparel staff members in the past week. Yesterday, American Apparel said in its statement that "United states Apparel doesn't hire or retain individuals predicated on 'beauty.'...The business legitimately reviews present pictures of work applications and workers to consider their feeling of design while the method by which they promote themselves." Today, some worker viewpoint on that plan:
These [biases] predicated on attractiveness are 100% accurate. Throughout my years there, I became over repeatedly obligated to deal with unprofessional, and unqualified business staff members. There's no way that these 19 year-old women had the foggiest concept how exactly to handle whole areas of stores. I became constantly puzzled as to the reasons these had been always some overly-sexualized younger lady from the supply of any male staff member with work at the factory. Why did they need "assistants"?...
During employing some one brand-new, it is real, they'd become beautiful. My manager don't like the policy, but enforced it. The actual only real girls which were not totally emaciated had been forced to work back-stock. In order to not disgust the shoppers with regards to average sized sides. God forbid. Photographs had to be taken. We were told simple tips to outfit, right down to the way we just weren't to wear makeup products.
If Dov had it his way, every employee at AA could be barely legal, emaciated, and using a lace tank-thong with high pumps...Horrible man. Terrible organization. Terrible quality of garments. Awful every thing.
A pithier variation:
It's not only photos for staff members we need to take pictures of. We need to send a photo of ourselves when we tend to be to obtain a raise to ensure we have been on brand name. Perhaps the stock guys. It's bullshit.
Clothing weren't the actual only real items that could get a possible staff member declared "off-brand:"
Dov and Marsha didn't such as the concept of musical organization members working at AA. In the event that candidate was at a musical organization, we were expected to defeat his/her myspace or website target which would go into the mail becoming submitted for analysis. A résumé would not be sent, though. Only photographs many notes we made towards people. There is some type of "interview sheet" regarding intranet, but I never understood a manager just who utilized that, nor do I previously keep in mind it being discussed regarding meeting telephone call. Oh, additionally the same went for blogs and bloggers. AA wanted to understand what their particular websites looked like and were about.
So become clear- there is NO outlined rubric for hiring that was ever brought to anyone's interest. No point system. Absolutely Nothing. I tried so very hard to obtain many interesting, skilled, intelligent workers employed, but they just weren't "on-brand" enough.
A recently departed previous AA store manager informs of life in Dov's fast-paced kingdom:
Corporate reps started going to more and more often. I prefer the definition of "reps" loosely because typically, these girls (and yes, these people were nearly almost always hot chicks within their 20's) application's would review like Kelly Bensimon's interests blurb on twitter... "Model, professional photographer, design icon" etc etc.
Staff members had been fired to be "off brand name" at a second's notice, and my staff started to dwindle. Ultimately it reached the purpose that I became working 1 week per week, every week, for months. I possibly could count how many days off I would had in six months on one hand. The worst part was which they won't I would ike to employ anybody. I kept taking pictures, kept submitting email messages for REALLY AWESOME people approved, and held being informed no, no, no. Either they didn't like their design, or they seemed down. There were never any concrete good reasons for applicants not-being approved. E-mails typically came back with one liners "maybe not authorized. Bad design". Also individuals who had been approved formerly just weren't safe. If Dov saw someone he didn't like—they were allowed to be dunzo. I knew of individuals inside the business who had been fired for refusing to terminate employees Dov wished gone. I won't go in to the private hell my life became at any time Dov was in town—that's a different story for a new time.
miri