Appearance isn't supposed to be everything,
but what would you notice first -- what your employee is saying
or the big tattoo of a flame-breathing dragon on his arm? Recently,
a health food store chain in California drew attention to the issue
of employee tattoos when it began enforcing a three-year-old ban
on the display of tattoos by employees. Following a customer complaint,
Mother’s Market in Huntington Beach, California, decided to enforce
its policy that employees with tattoos conceal them. Since 75% of
its workforce has one or more tattoos, the decision to enforce the
policy created quite a stir.
Union yes, tattoo no
In Illinois, workers at five Commonwealth Edison
nuclear plants were escorted off the job more than 50 times during
one week in August when they showed up for duty with a temporary
union tattoo affixed to their hands or other body parts. The workers
are allowed to wear shirts, buttons and bandannas with the union
logo, but the tattoos -- simply replicas of the buttons -- were
deemed to be too "distracting" to allow in the plants. As a result,
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is now monitoring the safety
of the plants because the ban on union tattoos is causing a shortage
of certified control room workers.
The police department at Southern Illinois University
at Edwardsville said it wouldn't hire Sean McClearey because he
has tattoos. According to a university spokesman, the tattoos could
make McClearey ineffective as a police officer if the campus community
finds the tattoos repulsive. McClearey offered to wear a long-sleeve
shirt year-round to cover the tattoos on his arms, but the university
refused, saying that shorts and short sleeves were required for
officers on bike patrol. McClearey is considering a suit against
the school.
Be a professional
Dawn Waldrop, workplace image consultant and
author of Best Impressions: How to Gain Professionalism, Promotion
and Profit, a book containing a chapter on tattoos, says that tattoos
are becoming a bigger issue as the number of Americans opting for
a tattoo grows. Roughly one in 10 Americans is tattooed, according
to industry estimates, and tattooing businesses are springing up
all over to keep up with the demand. Waldrop says the workplace
is affected because it’s not just young people who are getting tattoos.
"The average person getting tattooed is a professional man or woman
between the ages of 35 and 50," she says.
Waldrop tells her clients who want tattoos to
consider putting them somewhere where they can easily be covered.
Notwithstanding the decision of Southern Illinois University to
reject the job candidate’s offer to cover up his tattoos, most employers
find tattoos acceptable as long as they are appropriately covered
when necessary. The rules for coverage obviously will vary by position
-- an employee in constant contact with the public or clients will
need to be more circumspect than a web designer who never interacts
with clients or customers, for example.
Tattoo Regulations
What can employers legally require of employees
that have tattoos? In general, employers are free to regulate the
display of tattoos as long as they do not run afoul of rules prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of age, sex, religion, disability and
so on. State and municipal laws may vary, but there is no federal
law limiting employers' ability to consider tattoos and other appearance-related
issues when making employment decisions.
Suggestions for avoiding workplace conflict over
tattoos include:
- Develop a written dress code and appearance
policy that covers the display of tattoos. The policy should be
reasonable, and the focus should be on job-related regulations.
Limiting the display of tattoos when interacting with customers
and clients is likely to be seen by employees as an acceptable
practice; on the other hand, limiting the display of tattoos when
there is no public contact may be viewed as controlling and intrusive.
Kerry Horton, public relations professional with three tattoos,
says "I think the trick for HR managers is to make it clear to
employees that having tattoos in the workplace is acceptable as
long as they are not on blatant display."
- Evenly enforce the rules governing tattoo display.
Applying the rules haphazardly will create confusion and resentment.
If the policy is that no tattoos can be displayed, enforce it
for all employees, not just those that have scary or disconcerting
tattoos.
- Make sure your policy does not run afoul of
discrimination laws. A Los Angeles hotel recently settled a racial
discrimination case in which the owner of the hotel fired a number
of non-white employees with tattoos, saying their tattoos made
them look "too ethnic."
- Consider using an employee committee to draft
appearance regulations. With the help of employees, the Kenosha
Hospital and Medical Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin, recently put
together a tough new appearance code that includes a ban on tattoos.
The employees based the code on the strict dress code standard
used by the Disney Institute in Florida. By involving employees
in the code formulation, conflict over the terms of code was significantly
reduced.
- View tattoos as part of valuing employees'
individuality. Jeff Gores, an account executive with a high-tech
public relations firm in Oregon who has visible tattoos when he
wears short sleeves, says that "my employer has been great and
understanding, even going so far as promoting my individuality."
- Consider the available labor pool before making
policies that are too restrictive. In today’s labor market, talented
employees are difficult to find and some employers are lowering
their appearance standards in order to accommodate more unconventional
looks. In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, amusement park operators,
desperate for employees to staff their seasonal operations, relaxed
their appearance rules to allow tattoos and other formerly restricted
"accessories" in order to hire enough workers to operate efficiently.
This article is courtesy of HRWire. All rights
reserved.
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