We might be tempted to think, in this day and age, that a move as stupid as this one could not happen in our enlightened business world. However, the CEO of American Apparel (AMEX: APP), seems to think otherwise.
According to a story provided by Gawker.com; "American Apparel's ... madman CEO, Dov Charney is demanding the firing of employees he deems unattractive and thus detrimental to the "AA aesthetic."
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that people (especially in America) are ultra sensitive to negative comments about appearance. It also does not take a great deal of intelligence to recognize that the firing of employees based on their looks is a stupidly discriminatory practice. So, being that this project is being undertaken at the sole direction of CEO Charney, one does not have to spend much time analyzing exactly who is the stupid one over there.
The story from Gawker implies that American Apparel's store managers are being forced through intimidation to fire plain looking employees for the slightest mistakes. The supposition is that CEO Charney is simply weeding out his less than glamorous employees.
One could easily suppose that if CEO Charney does not reverse his course, relent on his aesthetic witch hunt, and reinstate employees who may have been fired for questionable reasons, things could get very ugly for American Apparel in one big hurry.
