A pithier version:
It’s not only pictures for employees that we need to take pictures of. We need to submit a photo of ourselves if we are to get a raise to make sure we are on brand. Even the stock boys. It is bullshit.
Clothes weren’t the only things that could get a potential employee declared “off-brand:”
Dov and Marsha didn’t like the idea of band members working at AA. If the applicant was in a band, we were supposed to take down his/her myspace or website address and that would go into the email being sent in for review. A résumé would not be sent, though. Just pictures and some notes we made about the applicants. There was some sort of “interview sheet” on the intranet, but I never knew a manager who made use of that, nor do I ever remember it being mentioned on the conference call. Oh, and the same went for blogs and bloggers. AA wanted to know what their sites looked like and were about.
So to be clear- there was NO outlined rubric for hiring that was ever brought to anyone’s attention. No point system. Nothing. I tried so hard to get numerous interesting, experienced, intelligent employees hired, but they weren’t “on-brand” enough.
In the end one has to feel relieved that the media is once again feeling brave enough to canvass these issues, because as it stands if we continue manifesting the same themes and schemes, it wont be long that the fashion industry implodes and the media industry with it too (think lost advertising dollars.)
