Human Resource Management in The Devil Wears Prada

    The novel The Devil Wears Prada is an example of how not to conduct a business in regard to human resource management. Miranda Priestly violates every rule in regard to hiring, her employees’ working hours, benefits and compensation. Her assistants work at least twelve hours a day without overtime pay; hiring practices include not hiring any woman who cannot fit into a size four. Miranda gives instructions with little information and expects them to be followed perfectly, regardless of whether these instructions are given in the office or after she has called her assistants at home on the weekend. In spite of these business practices, Miranda Priestly is considered the epitome of taste and style. Miranda uses threats and intimidation to run her magazine, which, in the real world, would set her up for a bankruptcy-sized lawsuit.

    Andrea Sachs plans to be a writer, but she needs a job in order to survive until that happens. She applies for the job as Miranda’s second assistant because it is, in fact, a job with a publication. The first problem with Andrea Sachs’ new job is that she is told if she can stick it out for a year, she will have her choice of assignments in the future. This is the lure that entices Andrea to take the job, even though her intention is to be a writer, not an errand girl. However, she understands that she has to start at the bottom, and this is the way to do it. The one part of her job that is made clear to her is that Emily, as Miranda’s first assistant, will handle Miranda’s business for the magazine, while Andrea will mostly be running personal errands. Unfortunately, her job requires little time learning about the magazine and its practices and more time being Miranda’s personal slave. Miranda frequently holds the promise of better jobs to come over her head in order to keep her from quitting. On page 327, Miranda hints that she might be willing to put in a call to The New Yorker (the site of Andrea’s dream job), when they return from Paris. This implies, of course, that Andrea must do anything she is asked, no matter how unreasonable. Job promotions and giving a good reference should be based on specific job performance, not on the whims of an impossible-to-please boss.

    Acceptable hiring practices are violated immediately when Andrea is hired with no mention of pay, benefits, or working hours (Weisberger, 2003, p. 27). An employer should first offer the candidate the job, and then discuss salary, potential overtime, and working hours. The prospective employee also needs to know what benefits come with the job. Andrea isn’t offered the job; she is informed that Miranda is willing to hire her. Neither Miranda nor Emily gives Andrea a complete job description. She is merely left to assume that she will be told what to do and when to do it. This is an irresponsible approach to business, as Andrea has no frame of reference for determining which requests are reasonable and which are unreasonable given her job description. However, she does realize that any and all requests must be completed, less risk being fired. The benefits that come with the job are common perks within the fashion industry, as well as clothing, accessories and other items from the Runway closet. The problem with these benefits is that an employee who doesn’t wear a size four or smaller would, in the end, receive no benefits at all. In addition, Andrea is required to dress fashionably for her job, so these perks aren’t so much benefits as they are a work uniform.

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    Andrea has been told that she may have to work some fourteen-hour days, but that this would not occur too frequently. Throughout the novel, Andrea works at least a fourteen-hour day, every day, and her weekends are occupied with bizarre requests from Miranda. Miranda demands that Andrea acquire a copy of the latest Harry Potter book – a book that won’t be in the stores for two more days. While Andrea is Miranda’s assistant, asking her to perform tasks for her children is stretching her job description. What makes it worse is the amount of time Andrea spends acquiring the book and shipping it to Paris – time that could have been spent at work, learning about the business for which she works. Andrea completes the task and expects to have the weekend to herself. However, she is inundated with calls from Miranda demanding to know where the book is and complaining that there was only one (nearly impossible to get) copy of the book for both girls (Weisberger, 2003, p. 89). Andrea complains frequently throughout the novel of the low pay, but she should be making a great deal of money considering the hours she puts in at work.

    Employees in any business should get at least a minimum of vacation time, breaks during the work day, and adequate time to eat lunch and use the restroom. Andrea gets none of the above. She arrives at work at seven o’clock and gets a ten or fifteen minute break – but only occasionally. One day, she is gone for five hours – during which time, Emily has not gone to the restroom once, for fear of missing a call from Miranda (Weisberger, 2003, p. 49). On page 62, it is already three o’clock and Andrea has not had a lunch break. Emily left the office to get lunch and hasn’t returned, after insisting that Andrea needed to stay at the desk just in case Miranda called. Andrea finally gives up waiting and goes to the cafeteria to get lunch. There, she encounters Emily, who is furious that Andrea has left the desk unmanned. She seethes, “If she called, we’re dead. You’re dead.” (Weisberger, 2003, p. 65).

Miranda’s power is such that her assistants aren’t even allowed a lunch or restroom break. Frequently throughout the novel, Andrea is criticized for her insistence upon eating lunch. Not only does she not get vacation time, but she doesn’t even have her evenings or weekends to herself. Rather, she can be called on a moment’s notice, after which she must drop everything and tend to Miranda’s needs, no matter how insignificant or impossible. Andrea must cancel plans with her boyfriend to attend a party that Miranda is throwing; to refuse would have resulted in being fired. When Emily comes down with mono and cannot go to Paris, Andrea must once again rearrange her life in order to go. A trip to Paris in any other context would have seemed like an incredible gift, but not for someone who hasn’t seen her family in months because her job demands that she stay in the city in order to be nearby if Miranda should happen to call.

    Runway’s hiring practices are questionable. Andrea is surrounded by attractive skinny girls, whom she describes as, “All weighed less than 110 pounds” (Weisberger, 2003, p. 41). While this may not be a hiring practice, it does put pressure on the staff to maintain an unhealthy weight in order to keep the job. When Andrea goes to the cafeteria for lunch, she finds that she is the only person eating anything substantial. In addition, the only men who work for Runway are gay. While this might be due to the fact that gay men have more of an interest in fashion, the other conclusion to be drawn is that they are simply not hiring straight men.

    Miranda has decided that she is far too important to carry on a conversation with her employees. Her assistants are expected to do their jobs perfectly with little information as to what they’re doing. This would be a problem in the real world, as employees need to be told, in detail, how to perform their jobs. This allows the employer to build a foundation upon which they can evaluate the employee. When Miranda gives Andrea and Emily instructions, they are always embedded in a short non-sequitor, for which Andrea has no frame of reference. She must hunt down the necessary information by asking Emily (her superior) or anyone else who might have the answer. She cannot ask her boss for further information.  This occurred on page 44, when Andrea is told to get Miranda a skirt. However, she doesn’t say what kind of skirt or even the purpose of the shirt. Andrea is left to figure that out on her own. She has a similar experience when Miranda mentions an antique shop she liked. The problem is that Miranda doesn’t mention the name of the shop or where it was located. Three days after finding every conceivable way to locate this antique shop, Andrea is finally given permission by Emily to ask Miranda for clarification. It is only at this time that Miranda gave her the business card for the store. Miranda never gives her employees clear expectations or any type of rubric for distinguishing good job performance from bad job performance.  On page 185, Miranda demands that Andrea get a hot-fudge sundae for her. Five minutes later, Andrea hasn’t left to get it, and Miranda is in a rage. An e-mail from Emily reads, “I wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t going to fire you…” This tells Andrea that she could be fired simply for taking too long in getting her boss dessert.

    Miranda is a caricature of a demanding, impossible-to-please boss who is permitted to behave like a tyrant because of her status in the fashion world. Everyone wants Miranda’s opinion on everything, and this is why she is allowed to treat her employees like slaves. By delegating every seemingly unimportant task to her assistants, Miranda can spend her time looking good and only dealing with business issues that require her name or signature. Unfortunately, Miranda has ignored many responsibilities of a good boss, one of which is to conduct a formal performance evaluation. Emily and Andrea should be evaluated based on their job description and given a promotion or a raise based on this evaluation, rather than on seniority alone.

    If Miranda was the target of a human resource audit, she would be instructed to make the following changes:

Employees must receive overtime for working longer than an eight-hour day, and must be given adequate notice that they will be required to stay late.
Hiring practices must be changed – Runway cannot discriminate on the basis of sex or weight.
Miranda must give her employees a job description. It must detail everything they are expected to do in a regular work day, as well as the occasional errands that they may need to attend to for Miranda. She must stop mixing business with her personal life – if Andrea is hired to attend to her personal needs, then she must not also be required to handle Runway duties, and vice-versa.
Miranda must conduct scheduled performance evaluations in order to let her assistants know how they are doing on the job and in order to have a basis for promotion, raises, or to be fired. Read about paradigm shift in human resource management

    In conclusion, The Devil Wears Prada is indeed a worst-case scenario in regard to employment. In the real world, employees who work hard are rewarded, and bosses who threaten to fire their employees over a delayed sundae are reprimanded. The novel does prove an important point, which is that fashion and pop culture have taken over in regard to values, so much that many people endure indescribable working conditions in order to get a foot in the door in a particular industry. Miranda Priestly does exist, and there are many Andreas in the world, working fourteen-hour days in order to break into an industry that sets and follows its own rules.

Works Cited:

Weisberger, L. (2003). The Devil Wears Prada. New York, NY: Random House.

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