Employment attorney John Phillips suggests that HR departments should rethink their policies on tattoos. This issue is a frequent question in my workshops. An excerpt from John's post:
Let’s be clear about the legal parameters that still remain. Employers can have a dress code or appearance policy prohibiting visible tattoos. Occasionally, an employee will claim race, gender, religious, or national origin discrimination, but those cases rarely get to first base. Employers have the right to tell employees how to dress, what looks professional and what doesn’t, and whether something is likely to interfere with customer or client relations.
Times are changing, however, and the question that continues to be pushed by employees is why can’t I have something on my body and show it proudly when that something — a tattoo — is becoming more mainstream every day. There was a time when a coat and tie for a man and a dress for a woman were considered musts for professional attire. Now it’s hard to find any workplace that doesn’t look like a bunch of gardeners have just come inside to take a break.
Funny thing, this. We've been trying to deal with the tattoo issue at work with minimal mutual beneficial affect.
ReplyDeleteI saw a baseball game about a month ago between the Phillies and the Florida Marlins. Brett Myers, a brash young pitcher for the Phillies, was on the mound that day. He had been pitching like a magician the previous 6 games. In a show of gamemanship, the Marlins' manager protested to the umpires that Myers' arm, which was tattooed, was districting his batters' attention. The umps forced Myers to go into the clubhouse and put on a long sleeve t-shirt under his uniform to hide the tattoo.
Maybe that's what we'll do. Call in the clothes umpires and have them issue t-shirts to all of our employees with "distracting" tattoos.
On the other hand, once he'd donned the long sleeve t-shirt, Myers promptly got pounded by the Marlins' batters. The Phillies got clubbed badly that day and Myers hasn't pitched well since. The long t-shirts handout to our employees may prompt a similar drop-off in their work ability.
Maybe, we'll table that idea simply deal with the distraction. As with anything, the distraction will soon get to be just another mundanity. We will, however, draw the line at bikinis and swim shorts as allowable casual dress.
Darkov,
ReplyDeleteI missed that ball game story. Marvelous!