Does PwC have a Debrahlee on its hands?
Too hot for this joint…?
The banking world has been intrigued by the claims of superhottie Debrahlee Lorenzana made against Citi which essentially boil down to her being fired for being too attractive.
Not wanting to compete with the banking sector for scandalous claims or anything, but it seems as if accounting may have its very own case of too-hot-for-this-joint starting up Stateside.
Going Concern: The Big 4, having its share of hotties, now is facing allegations of its own discriminatory behavior. We were sent the following email that has been making the rounds at PwC about a young associate who was shown the door last Friday. Bravely, the author of the email included her name and phone number, which we’ve redacted.
I have been following the story about the banker in NYC who was fired for her “appearance”. I was just fired today [June 11th] from my job at PricewaterhouseCoopers. I am a graduate of Lehigh University, I have been with the firm since September 2009. I would like to think I am competent enough to hold a job – I recently studied 8 hours for a CPA exam and passed. A test that I have watched my peers struggle with – studying for months and failing multiple times. I have 3 of 4 CPA exams completed, and I am 3-3 in my testing.
Bright then…
I am a 22 year old girl, and I definitely do not “look the part” of an accountant. While on my team with all males, I received constant harassment about how I should “sleep with the senior manager (who was very disliked) to make him cooler” or “you have to go talk to the client cause you are hot”. My mentor from the firm was on my team as well, and every day would comment on my appearance, such as, “Did you lose weight? You look good” or “Your legs look fabulous today”. I was also told that my senior on the team was “in-love with me” and that I should “hook-up with him”.
And distractingly hot to boot.
But PwC don’t accept that this led to unfair treatment:
As a matter of policy and practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers is fully committed to maintaining a workplace free of sexual harassment. We take any complaints about sexual harassment seriously, and investigate any such claim thoroughly and confidentially. That is exactly what we did in this case, and we did not find any basis to the allegations.
We predict this one to run some way yet though.
