Debrahlee Lorenzana was terminated in November 2009 from Citibank, for what she claims to have been for dressing too “sexy” at work. She had been told not to wear turtlenecks, tight pants, and pencil skirts, along with other appearance modifications because of her body shape. You can find many articles online that talk about Lorenzana, including her being on the Discovery Channel in 2003 discussing her desire for another breast augmentation, but I want to highlight the dress code mentioned in this case.
The articles are stating that although Citibank has a dress code which mentions not wearing “provocative” clothing, it does not get into any specifics and a lot of the discretion is up to management.
How can such a large banking institution not have an up-to-date and explicit dress code?
There are many companies these days that are operating without a dress code policy or with a very ambiguous one. If Citibank had a policy that human resources or management could refer to for Lorenzana, they would not be in a lawsuit right now. This would have prevented management from discrimination and given Citibank legal grounds to terminate if she was not adhering to dress code policy. Lately, most company dress codes that I see have not been updated in at least five to ten years. Corporate culture changes over the years so what was an appropriate look for the banking industry in 1995, is not realistic for 2010.
If you are unsure of what to wear in your work environment, you should be pretty safe to assume the attire of your boss or upper management as a guide. If you are an organization who has not updated your dress code in the past 2-3 years, don’t allow what happened to Citibank happen to you and consider hiring a professional to update it!
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