One former staffing agency employee used to help others land jobs, now she joins the unemployed, but by choice.

"I decided that I did not want to be a part of the practices that my company was enforcing," a former employee of TEC Staffing Services said.

She saw the practices as discriminating against job candidates and says Fayetteville's TEC Staffing Services' employee rating system required her to rate potential employees based on appearance.

"If you're very professional you know, good looking, you would get an A."

But it wasn't the ABC ratings that concerned her most, about a month ago she says the company enforced new codes on its post hiring questionnaire.

"Basically it was an O-W for overweight." Other codes included the letter U for unkempt, meaning dirty or smelly and M for missing teeth.

But as much as the new codes shocked the former employee, they're completely legal.

State and federal laws say there's only a handful of categories protected against discrimination.

They include age, sex, race, national origin, color and disability.

Only when one of these categories is targeted can a policy qualify as discrimination.

"When you have a policy that discriminates against people who are overweight and you only apply that to females and not to males, then that could constitute discriminatory practice, Susan Kendall, an employment work attorney, said.

As for the new job candidate, she hopes to work for another staffing agency whose policies reflect her values.

"I just have to stick to my morals, I just don't care to work for someone who practices that way."