Pressure, Bullying And Discrimination Behind Fashion Industry

It is thought that the fashion industry is full of illusions, but the shadow behind the industry is enormous.

According to fashion business news, fashion website Fashionista and A FashionablePause recently launched a survey on fashion industry bullying. Anonymous survey of 640 people engaged in public relations, editing, retail and design industry, collected data on bullying, stress and inability to balance life and work, aimed at revealing the status quo of the fashion industry and changing the trend. The survey shows that the bullying problem in the fashion industry is still very grim.

The survey first revealed the most serious problem of bullying in the industry.

In the survey, bullying is defined as abuse, threat, humiliation or intimidation, which interferes with health, interferes, destroys or prevents the completion of work.

More than 60% of respondents said that bullying was the norm in their working environment.

81% of respondents said they had been bullied by their colleagues.

In the form of bullying, 72% of respondents claimed that their superiors would use public humiliation as a form of punishment.

60% said they were threatened by their superiors such as "there are dozens of people waiting for you, if you do not want it, then leave quickly".

Another 77% said they had been roared and abused at work.

More than one of the respondents wrote anonymous letters to the investigation team, describing their colleagues anonymous Internet bullying on twitter, deliberately excluding others from company parties or meetings, abusive behavior and so on.

In the whole industry, employees are not respected and become commonplace.

Other respondents told extreme cases that their colleagues were sacked and rehired three times by a large company, which clearly shows that employees can be arbitrarily processed and replaced. "We are absolutely worthless."

Bullying from bosses also involves unreasonable demands or scapegoats.

82% of the respondents said their executives often put forward some unrealistic demands.

51% says that it is often the boss's errand to do nothing personal.

Another 76% of the participants said they had been used as scapegoats by their superiors, which led to a generally low level of trust among their employees. 87% of them did not feel comfortable to discuss with their supervisors.

In addition to being bullied by superiors or colleagues, excessive work and its salary are not directly proportional to the industry environment is another key point of unhealthy.

According to the survey, half of the respondents worked for more than 50 hours a week, and most of them could not balance their work and life well.

About 1/3 of the respondents said they worked overtime for more than 10 hours per week.

76% of respondents said they often felt "this is not the time to eat or to go to the bathroom" in their working environment.

In addition, 83% of respondents said that even if they were on vacation, they would expect to be contacted by SMS or e-mail.

Other respondents complained that the fashion industry was underpaid, overworked and without any fringe benefits.

At the same time, the ever bright fashion industry requires practitioners to be brilliant and beautiful, but in fact most people's wages do not support his demand for appearance.

More than 62% of respondents said the environment required them to wear clothes that were beyond their ability to pay.

"Looking at the face" has also become a normal workplace.

Almost half of the respondents said they had received negative feedback about their dress or appearance at work.

A staff member mentioned that she had been evaluated by a famous publishing group. Although she was very smart, her appearance seemed too fierce for the paper media industry, so she asked her to seriously dress up, otherwise they could only work in the digital department, because there was only need to look "creative".

The editor also refused to provide an employee promotion opportunity because he did not match the magazine's atmosphere.

The fastidious and biased attitude towards the body not only exists in the magazine industry, but also in the retail industry.

A "big yard" female interviewee said that colleagues often complained and laughed at the fact that all the fat people were lazy and did not understand why they could tolerate themselves.

Another manager said she thought that all stores should not be fat because they should be ashamed of having such a figure.

And all these words were spoken in the face of the interviewee.

Discrimination against race and religion is a commonplace in fashion circles.

For example, refusing to wear a specific dress for a Muslim employee in the holidays, and an interviewee and his colleagues often call the names of three very similar black employees or make fun of them. But ironically, there are eight women with light brown skin in the office, several of whom are very similar, but have never been mixed up.

Apart from racial discrimination, it is not uncommon for women to be disrespectful in such a large number of industries.

As one interviewee said, "I want to go home after 10 hours of work every day, but I was publicly criticized for refusing to participate in a gathering with male male investors.

Sometimes I think we are the props that companies use to attract investors. "

Worse than the bad working atmosphere, practitioners believe that their prospects in the industry are not bright.

More than 85% of respondents said they had no confidence in their connections.

79% of respondents said they needed to pay the price to get better opportunities in the industry.

More than 84% of respondents said they were considering leaving the fashion industry.

While half of the respondents who had worked in other industries, 77.5% thought the former industry environment was healthier than it is now.

One of the respondents reluctantly said that they had not heard a positive career story in fashion or retail industry.

In fact, there are many reality shows in the United States, such as "Project Runway" and "America's Next TopModel".

Whether it is the most dramatic elements or the real situation is difficult to see, but the intensity of competition in the fashion industry is obvious to all.

It is noteworthy that not only the lower levels of the workplace suffer from anxiety and pressure in the fashion industry, but also the employees who are in high positions are also suffering from the industry environment.

LucindaChambers, a senior fashion director who had worked for the British version of Vogue for 25 years, had complained to the British independent fashion magazine Vestoj when she left. She talked about the details of her dismissal from the new editor EdwardEnninful, and the industry inside her job at Marni and Vogue. She even attacked the general anxiety in the industry, saying that "fashion is a group of anxious people."

In this article, entitled "can I still get a Will I?", she said she was suddenly dismissed by the new editor in chief, and the personnel department, her colleagues, chairman and even publisher who worked with her for 25 years did not know about this matter. "They only made 3 minutes to make this decision," she said. In the article "Will Get"

She continued to point out that fast fashion has raised people's expectations of large groups such as LVMH. Business has forced designers to think like businessmen, and always want faster and more.

The design of 8 to 16 series a year makes designers very stressed and prone to alcoholism, dependence on drugs or mental breakdown.

Today's fashion is also intolerant of failure, and everyone may leave at any time.

She also revealed that she was very disappointed after being dismissed.

"Most people who leave the Vogue will feel the difference. It turns out that your personal value has never been higher than the value of the company."

But she thought she would not worry about these things again.

From the interview with Lucinda Chambers, we can see that anxiety is widespread throughout the industry.

Some analysts believe that if the above problems are allowed to breed, rage and even become a "culture" in the industry, those who will eventually stand on top will be those who act recklessly in bullying, discrimination and overtime work or think that the above actions are right.

Although the sample of the bullying phenomenon in the fashion industry is not large, it still has a warning effect on the industry.

As practitioners, everyone has an obligation to work hard for a healthy industry environment, while the responsibility of fashion media is to stimulate discussion.

As Vestoj magazine has said earlier, such discussions will make fashion media more powerful and useful.