Tattoos and Piercings in the Workplace

[Linus]

Originally Posted by SassyLeo

Erin has visible tattoos and a nose ring...she also works in IT. And in her work environment, she also gets to wear shorts and t-shirts everyday. Do you think that IT has a different concept about these things?

Some parts of IT, yes. Parts that are not customer facing don't really care. They are more interested in ability than looks (the old BOFH was not know for hygiene or fashion sense).

[Waldo]

My first thought was "how is a nose piercing any less clean/healed than an ear piercing"?

There is a strata. And it's stupid. Sorry Sassy. I hear that it's your gut reaction and I'm not trying to jump down your throat for it.

My feeling on the notion is as follows and this is from someone who's both been there and done that:

I no longer care to work for any company who places value judgements about their employees or potential employees based on physical appearance.

Know why? Cause it doesn't stop at tattoos and piercings.

It doesn't stop at fat
It doesn't stop at fey appearing
It doesn't stop at butch appearing
It doesn't stop at balding
It doesn't stop at short
It doesn't stop at women
It doesn't stop at latino/a
It doesn't stop at black
It doesn't stop.

[SassyLeo]

Originally Posted by Waldo

My first thought was "how is a nose piercing any less clean/healed than an ear piercing"?

There is a strata. And it's stupid. Sorry Sassy. I hear that it's your gut reaction and I'm not trying to jump down your throat for it.

My feeling on the notion is as follows and this is from someone who's both been there and done that:

I no longer care to work for any company who places value judgements about their employees or potential employees based on physical appearance.

Know why? Cause it doesn't stop at tattoos and piercings.

It doesn't stop at fat
It doesn't stop at fey appearing
It doesn't stop at butch appearing
It doesn't stop at balding
It doesn't stop at short
It doesn't stop at women
It doesn't stop at latino/a
It doesn't stop at black
It doesn't stop.

Thankfully I know you well enough to know you are not jumping down my throat . And I get your point.

I'm still trying to figure out where my feelings on this stem from...because I also have feelings about general appearance in the workplace, not necessarily related to tattoos and piercings. Like, we have a woman here who, despite consistent reminders about the company policy, wears flip flops to work (the cheap kind you buy at Old Navy for $2- which I also own but do not wear to work...) I personally think it is unprofessional, given the kind of work she does...

[Waldo]

Originally Posted by SassyLeo

Thankfully I know you well enough to know you are not jumping down my throat . And I get your point.

I'm still trying to figure out where my feelings on this stem from...because I also have feelings about general appearance in the workplace, not necessarily related to tattoos and piercings. Like, we have a woman here who, despite consistent reminders about the company policy, wears flip flops to work (the cheap kind you buy at Old Navy for $2- which I also own but do not wear to work...) I personally think it is unprofessional, given the kind of work she does...

Yeah, see there's the difference for me. Physical appearance versus accessories.

Shoes? easy peasy to change.

Tattoos and piercings? Easy to cover up most.

Clothing? Easy.

Jewelry? Easy.

Of course none of it is easy if leadership is afraid to enforce the rules it made.

[sweetfemme247]

I work in a wear house so i can wear what i want and i can have tattoos

[Gemme]

I currently live in the PNW but was born in the South. I've also always worked in customer service industries. These things together have molded my views of tats and piercings in the professional and public arenas, which is basically HAVE them but don't SHOW them.

Here's my personal experience:

I work for a hotel. We are situated in a military town. During months with higher turnovers, it is reasonable that I will come into contact with well over 25,000 people. These would just be those *I* came into contact with, no more than 8 hours a day for a month or so. These would be folks who are enlisted, officers, transients, corporate hounds, families and/or civilian contractors. They could be from Kentucky or Japan or Virginia or Hawaii (and have been, within the same hour, no less).

Each region and each culture has its own views on public displays of private choices. Some are obviously more conservative. Some are more progressive.

The hotel once hired a woman who was covered in tats. They started on her upper neck and were visible on her chest and arms and one thigh. First of all, she wore clothing that was too revealing or a number of those tats would not have been seen. Second, we lost business because of her. We lost a $15-20,000 stay with one of our long time contractors. He walked in and was horrified by her appearance and cancelled his reservations on the spot. Actually, I was too, but not just because she had so many tats (some of which were inappropriate...sexually aggressive, I'll call them), but because of her work ethic and resistance to the rules of the house (having nothing to do with the tats...she had authority issues).

Anyway, back to the contractor....as I mentioned, we had a strong relationship with him as he and his men had been coming to us for about 6 years. We couldn't get him back in until after she was fired (the tats were not the focus of her termination, for the record), during which we lost more than $60,000 in revenue from his company for all the stays he would have stayed with us.

If it seems as if I didn't care for this person, that would be correct. There were conflicts between her and every other clerk, management and most of the housekeepers. Perhaps my views of her taint how I view the tat situation. Perhaps I resent her for contributing to a very difficult time with the hotel (hours cut due to lost business, fostering poor relations within the Front Desk clerks...etc). Perhaps.

I feel similarly about our current maintenance assistant. He has tats on his arms, which is no biggie to me, as they can be covered and sometimes he does. But the piercings get me. I really wish he'd put in silver or clear diddly bobs instead of black. He has several piercings and the dark blobs and dots makes his face look dirty. If he did a fabulous job, I might not *see* the piercings as much but he doesn't. He is a lazy and a bum who would rather work less so he can collect more on his unemployment. He's also toked on the property.

Maybe I just need to find a job where my coworkers are good workers who just happen to have tats and/or piercings. Or maybe where the bosses have balls.

Anyway, that's how I see it. It's not very progressive of me, I suppose, but I have to put myself in the place of the guest who may be coming to us for the first time. They want to see a professional appearance. That doesn't mean I can't have tats (which I do), just that I need to present "cleanly", especially in an environment that they are going to sleep and eat in. This includes hair being pulled back and no dangly jewelry as well.

My ex husband works in IT and they give him a lot of leeway for his fro. *grin* He is a red-headed half Italian, half Puerto Rican man that looks like a nice Jewish boy. The last time I saw him, it was pretty wild. That's in central Florida, the retirement capitol of the world, so they tend to be pretty conservative. Granted, hair is not the same as tats or piercings, but he'd probably be able to get away with those too since he totally kicks ass at his job.

I definitely think that ability plays into jobs that are less forward-facing more than appearance and appearance plays a more important role in jobs that have more face to face interactions with guests/customers/clients/etc.