SHE was too sexy for her shirts, so sexy it hurt - her career, court papers say.

A curvy New York City woman said she was forced out of her job at Citibank because her male co-workers found her figure "too distracting",



Debrahlee Lorenzana said she was dressing professionally on the job, but her male bosses and co-workers still found her too hot to be around.

See pictures of Debrahlee Lorenzana here

Ms Lorenzana began working for Citibank as a business banking officer at their Chrysler Building branch in September 2008.

"Shortly after the commencement of her employment, branch manager Craig Fisher and assistant branch manager Peter Claibourne began articulating inappropriate and sexist comments concerning plaintiff's clothing and appearance," her court filings said.

"The improper comments made to plaintiff by Fisher and Claibourne included, but were not limited to, advising her that she must refrain from wearing certain items of clothing, in particular, turtleneck tops, pencil skirts, fitted business suits, or other properly tailored clothing.

Ms Lorenzana "complained to management, pointing out that other female colleagues wore similar professional attire" and that some dressed far more provocatively, her court filing said.

She was also told that "as a result of her tall stature, coupled with her curvaceous figure, she should not wear classic high heeled business shoes, as this purportedly drew attention to her body in a manner that was upsetting to her easily distracted male managers".

The fed-up woman made a formal complaint to human resources in May of last year, and asked for a transfer to another branch, according to the court filing. The transfer didn't go through, and she was stripped of some of her duties, and then not given proper training for her new ones, the suit said.

She was finally transferred in July, but matters didn't improve at the next branch, where she was chided for failing to recruit new customers despite being given an out of the way post on the second floor, her filings say. She was fired that August.

"The purported reasons for plaintiff's termination included that she failed to meet the required new account opening quotas, in addition to the credulity-straining assertion that her clothing choices were 'inappropriate'," the suit said.

Ms Lorenzana's gender discrimination suit was dismissed last month because her deal with Citibank called for any disputes to be settled in private arbitration. She's pressing on with her case there.

Citibank did not immediately return a call for comment.

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