26th Dec 2007
Piercings More Problematic Than Tattoos?
I should first state that I’m not objective about tattoos and piercings because I know a fair number of people with them do they don’t strike me as bizarre or the markers of laziness. And GhostGirl found this link, and she lived in Santa Cruz, which is the land of the tattooed and pierced.
A worker in Florida got a nose piercing although the worker’s boss told her beforehand it “wasn’t in her best interests” (Why does this sound like an episode of the Sopranos?). Whether she then resigned because of the piercing or was fired is not clear to me (or her or her boss, apparently).
Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Olson [Ed note: her boss] said having the public served by someone with a nose piercing is not his idea of public service.
“We are a professional organization,” Olson said. “If you choose to have that, work somewhere else.”
And the last paragraph of the article summarizes the dress code of Olson, the boss, who only wears suits, and has for decades.
I think about how much work there is to do in the world. I think about the people I met who were the worst to work with. I think about the best customer service I ever received. Nose rings … nothing to do with any of that.
I’m not sure I object to dress codes in general, but they seem to often been haphazardly applied. The piercing seems to have offended this man deeply.
I think “tasteful” should be the rule of thumb here. I, too, have no problem with people who are tatted or pierced in a workplace setting, but I qualify that statement by saying too that often times their choices in both can be highly questionable.