Citibank fires sexy coworker

Posted by Claire | Friday June 4, 20106 comments
It's a story with a headline we can't resist: Sex and the Citibank.

Photo via NYDailyNews

Debrahlee Lorenzana was allegedly fired from Citibank for being drop-dead gorgeous. It seems her curves and flaunting fashion sent more than just her branch's revenues up. Male customers confess going out of their way to check out her - um - assets, while colleagues claim her looks were distracting in the office environment.

Citibank of course denies that Ms. Lorenzana's looks or wardrobe led to her dismissal, but it raises an interesting question.

Should a woman (or man for that matter) be fired for dressing inappropriately, even if it doesn't technically break office dress code? Have you felt uncomfortable because of a coworker's looks or fashion choices?
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6 Comments

on November 16, 2015  Anonymous said:

She is not the problem. Let her where whatever she wants as long as she doesn't break the rules. Everyone else needs a lesson in self control and the ability to focus. The real problem is most likely that her coworkers are insecure, self conscious and jealous around her due to her physical attractiveness, which is in no way her fault. Grow up folks.

on January 05, 2012  LadyChick234234  3,701 said:


I've been "spoken to" about my appearance in the workplace. I was abiding by the Dress Code, however the company I worked for was very conservative. My boss told me I looked "too fashion forward" (I was wearing some big bangle bracelettes on my wrist and stiletto boots with a conservative skirt and sweater). She proceeded to tell me that I was "distracting her" and to take the bangles off. After I removed them, I told her I was planning on going to HR with this because I felt I was being scolded, singled out and spoken to for no real reason and of course, as expected she backed down, apologized and said "don't worry about it" and I never heard of it again.

Clearly she was jealous that she looked like a dork and I did not.

on January 05, 2012  takoda  28,648 said:

I can see them firing her if they had rules about this and she wasn't
listing to them, or they had taking her aside and asked her not to dress
a certain way. Other wise they knew what she looked like when they hirer
her, so I don't think they should have fired her after words for this.

on January 05, 2012  LadyFlash  8,899 said:

If she was dressing inappropriate and she had been warned once. Then I completely agree with her dismissal. However, if not it's pretty unfair. People can't help if they're busty or curvaceous even when wearing the most modest outfit. Pretty sexist to penalize someone by their looks in this world to me. Plus the fact that it was bringing in people more often etc to me says that's good business lol.

on January 05, 2012  mefelix  326 said:


this is a great story, and im sure is true in a lot of cases around the world. some types of clothes do not break the dress code rules at a workplace, but the person wearing them does. eg- i am a bigger busted woman and one day at work i got asked by my manager to wear a tank top under my shirt because i was showing too much skin. then a few days later, a smaller busted co-worker was wearing an even lower shirt, but was never spoken to about it. my shirt wasnt even that low, but because you could see my clevage, it was unacceptable; whereas the smaller busted girl didnt have any clevage so even though her shirt was lower than mine, it was acceptable.

on June 01, 2011  TammyK  1,073 said:

Wow this was the first time I have ever heard about any scenarios like that where a person was fired for being too attractive. I find that to be unfair but I also understand the company's perspective that if someone is distracting the employees and customers then something needs to be done. I think that maybe discussing with her about different clothing option would help. If she is really that curvy, then maybe it's not a good idea to wear tight clothes that accentuate her curves.

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