Getting Fired for Gaining Weight Isn’t Even the Worst Way to Lose Your Job

After 10 years of convincing customers that they really, really need a logo-covered bag, a Michigan-based Coach employee was dismissed for gaining weight. Or so she alleges in a lawsuit filed in Detroit’s federal court.

Elizabeth DeLorean started working at the clothing and accessories company in 2002 as a 20-something who would dine on health-conscious microwaveable meals during her lunch break. But over the course of a decade, she worked herself up from floor salesperson to manager and gained 100 pounds. Because of this change in appearance, she was reportedly harassed by fellow employees and eventually let go. “Some of them were little things, like you know ‘maybe you should tune into the Biggest Loser or the weight loss television show,’” DeLorean’s attorney, Sarah Prescott, said. “Then it would get a little more intense, things like, at a performance review ‘whatever happened to the girl who would bring in her Lean Cuisine for lunch every day?’”

Coach insists the 35-year-old’s poor performance was the only factor involved in her firing, but DeLorean is seeking unspecified damages for lost employment and distress.

Yes, being laid off because of your body is totally harsh, but it might not be the worst reason for getting the ax.

Pregnant Nasty Gal employees got the ax instead of maternity leave. Shortly after Aimee Concepcion told her supervisor she had a bun in the vintage-covered oven, she was terminated, despite positive performance reviews. Another about-to-pop person was also put on the chopping block, along with a new mother with just a few days left of her maternity leave and one guy on his way out for paternity leave.

An Abercrombie model was fired for eating a croissant. How dare he?! Belgian model Florian Van Bael was booted from a Bruce Weber photo shoot because he ate a flaky pastry.

Lauren Odes was “too hot” to trot to be a lingerie distributor. The 29-year-old a production assistant at Native Intimates worked for two days before her looks proved to be too intimidating for her co-workers. Someone might’ve insisted that she go out and purchase an ankle-length sweater to cover up her considerable assets. She hired Gloria Allred as her lawyer to take on the Orthodox Jewish owners on the grounds of discrimination.

A former drug addict admitted her past transgressions to the media, got fired from Forever21 for doing so. Cassie Briscoe appeared on the cover of the San Diego Reader, describing her traumatic childhood, subsequent drug abuse, and then arrest. She found religion and turned her life around all with a house arrest bracelet still on her ankle. Forever21 said she’d concealed her felony on her application and fired her. "I didn’t expect this would turn around on me like this,“ Briscoe told San Diego station KGTV. "I only saw good things coming from it.”

Dov Charney was forced out of the company he founded because…well, there were many reasons. American Apparel insisted that Charney was fired “for cause” after he violated the terms of his employment agreement, but it’s pretty obvious the board was just waiting for him to slip up to get him out following multiple accusations of sexual harassment and even a sexting incident.

A J.C. Penney was fired for not loving the company’s discounting style. Bob Blatchford was so upset that J.C. Penney was drastically hiking prices on items only to cut them back and advertise discounts, that he went on the Today Show and exposed the department store’s shady practice. "I don’t think Penney’s will survive if they keep doing this,“ he said. Then he was fired.

J.Crew’s vice president of men’s merchandising was fired after he made fun of his recently fired co-workers. Following a round of layoffs, Alejandro Rhett partied at a bar near J. Crew’s downtown headquarters with some fellow survivors and made a reference to the Hunger Games in an Instagram. Page Six came across the post and the media attention resulted in Rhett’s departure. J. Crew said in a statement that it “does not condone this behavior in any way. Individuals’ actions do not represent the culture of our company — this is not who we are. The tough decisions we made last week were not something we took lightly.”

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