Corporate and your body

[iradney]

We all know about the dress codes companies impose when you start working for them.
I'm not sure if there are companies that are similar in other areas of the world, but in South Africa, think very conservative.
Sure, everyone's on first name terms, but if you come to work in jeans and it's not a Friday, eyebrows are raised.
If you get a facial piercing and it's not part of your religion (E.G. Hindu), you get a talking to.

If companies can dictate what you wear, what you can and cannot do with your body vis a vis tattoos, piercings, scarring, hair styles & colour, where does the line get drawn?

What's to stop your boss from calling you into the office and saying:
"Look, Employee, you need to lose weight. You're not obese, but a few pounds need to be lost."
Or:

"You need a breast enhancement - it will make you more attractive to customers."

Or
"We've decided you'd look better as a woman, so you need a sex change operation."

If they've got you over the barrel, like companies currently do in this economical climate, where does the power end?

[BlaqueKatt]

If companies can dictate what you wear, what you can and cannot do with your body vis a vis tattoos, piercings, scarring, hair styles & colour, where does the line get drawn?

They can only dictate these things if you make the choice to give up your freedom for money.

I can choose to work in an office making $10-$12 and hour and say say "yes I'll follow your dress code"

OR

I can decide I don't want someone telling me what to wear, if I can have visable tattoos or piercings-and get a job that allows that and make less money.


If it really bothers the person in question to "sell out" they have the ability to make a choice to not compromise their personal expression. Or as my friend did-he had a sepum piercing-at work he actually flipped it so it was up inside his nose-once he got off work he took it down, he wore longsleeve shirts to cover his tattoos.

Another friend of mine is covered in tattoos-working on full sleeves-so he has a job that doesn't put too much stock in appearances, as long as you do your job. He makes a living, as much as he would elsewhere-no, but he's happy, he can express himself freely. Personally my 5 tattoos were placed so they can't be seen unless I want them to show- and if I have to take out my tongue piercing at work-so be it-I can put it back when I'm off work-to me it's not a big deal-but again that's my choice to work there, no one is forcing you to work for a company that compromises your sense of self, however you choose to express that.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I have three upper ear piercings that I cover with my hair; win win. A lot of people where I am have visible tattoos; as long as you wear the correct uniform then you're clear as far as tattoos go. I can also have my hair; red with blonde streaks, cuz it doesn't affect my ability to do my job. However, I do have to wear a uniform, and it has to be correct uniform. I chose to work in a place with a set uniform, so I put up with it. After all, I can wear what I want outside of work; it's not a problem to me.

[iradney]

Say, for example, when you start working for a company, it's pretty relaxed. Or the branch you're working for is laid back and doesn't really care as long as you get your work done.
Now, the company grows, and it starts introducing new policies.
OR
you get transferred to a different branch with different rules.
E.G Old work: You could have small visible tattoos, no problem. You could have funky coloured hair - who cares?
New work: No visible tattoos ever at all. Not even if they're a millimetre across.
Natural hair colour only - nope, you can't even go from brown to dark brown.

At my highschool, they were like that. Right down to suggesting the type of undies girls should wear. Which I could kind of understand, it's VERY windy where I went to school, and if you're wearing a thong...they just basically said "Cover your butt."
Girls couldn't dye their hair, have nails that went over the tips of their fingers, wear color polishes (or even french manicure!), no makeup, only a plain necklace, one pair of earrings etc etc.
Guys couldn't shave their hair, had to be cleanshaven faces, no piercings, tattoos etc. And yes, we wore uniforms...

[Greenday]

As for school, since I went to a public school, as long as you didn't wear anything too revealing, no one cared. The only times problems arose were when girls would wear skirts that were really short and they'd complain that guys would try to look up their skirts. I'm sorry, but if your skirt doesn't cover your ass, I'm siding with the rest of the guys.

As for work, 2 of my previous jobs involved talking to customers face-to-face, so we had uniforms. Outside of that, my bosses didn't care.

One of my previous jobs was working in a warehouse, and the only person I didn't work with that I saw was the UPS guy, so anything was ok there.

At my current job with the government, we have to dress business casual, even though I sit in a cubicle all damn day doing nothing. Business casual being dress shoes, dress pants, either a polo or collared shirt. No ridiculous amounts of earrings, no other types of rings, no white makeup, no crazy hair colors or styles, no tattoos showing.

Honestly, for the most part, I agree with them all. I just hate being stuck wearing pants in the summer.

Oh, and iradney, depending on the profession, you CAN be told lose weight or you are fired. For examples, "models who serve drinks". The key thing in that is models, and you have to physically fit to be a model, so even though you just serve drinks, you are still SOL.

[iradney]

Oh, and iradney, depending on the profession, you CAN be told lose weight or you are fired. For examples, "models who serve drinks". The key thing in that is models, and you have to physically fit to be a model, so even though you just serve drinks, you are still SOL.

Oh well yeah, of course, that's kind of a given. But if you are say...10 pounds overweight, and you do not work as a model or fitness instructor or anything that demands you be at a certain weight, does the company have a right to tell you "Lose weight?"
I say this, because a friend of mine was told that at her first job as a sales rep. And she was not even 10 pounds overweight, she was beautifully curvy.

[Greenday]

Oh well yeah, of course, that's kind of a given. But if you are say...10 pounds overweight, and you do not work as a model or fitness instructor or anything that demands you be at a certain weight, does the company have a right to tell you "Lose weight?"
I say this, because a friend of mine was told that at her first job as a sales rep. And she was not even 10 pounds overweight, she was beautifully curvy.

In America, that'd never fly with the courts. You can't fire someone from that kind of job for that reason.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

You all might find this Business Week article interesting and relevant.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...9/b4023001.htm

[BlaqueKatt]

You all might find this Business Week article interesting and relevant.

That was scary-using data mining to analyze your family's healthcare records, and the commentors totally agreeing with the article.