cross-posted from: https://rabbitea.rs/post/280182

I think this is appropriate here!

‘I am a self-expressive person and I feel very confident with pink hair so I came up with a solution to keep the job and my hair’

  • MyFairJulia@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I hope her creative resistance doesn’t get incorporated as part of the brand of her workplace.

    EDIT: To the downvoters:

    Brands have begun to incorporate some imperfections into their marketing. For example the Deutsche Bahn, our german railway company, are sometimes making jokes about how their trains are notoriously late. Are they making their service better? No. Or not noticeably so far. I think McDonalds have also made jokes about their broken soft ice machines and they did not do anything to make them more reliable. According to iFixit, they and the company making the machines have actively fought against a small company that wanted to make a tool to making fixing these machines easier.

    So that’s why i hope that our wig-wearing heroine doesn’t just get incorporated into the marketing instead of being allowed to show her pink hair.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, the marketing version of “inclusiveness”:

      “We are a great, hip and youthfull place to work: just look at *picture of male model with a hipster beard* Joe from Accounting”

      (Reminds me of how since about first Tech boom, Tech companies would show to the Press and prospective candidates all the amazing facilities they have for employees to relax - fuzzball tables, relax-spaces with beanbag chairs, even indoor slides - but if you’re on the inside you quickly find out you’re expected to work 12h/day on a never ending sequence of death marches and you’ll never actually have time to use those “relax facilities”)

      This kind of thing is the result of about the same process as their businesswise evaluation of complying with regulations: they usually conclude that the profit maximizing option is to provide the appearence of complying whilst internally and through less explicit methods (usually all in choices that aren’t explicitly justified) acting in a completelly different way.

      If there is one thing companies have learned in the last 4 decades is that image managements is way cheaper (read: “profit enhancing”) than actually doing the right things and delivers pretty much the same results if in influencing those external to the company.

      One can trust a corporation about as much as one can trust a known sociopath.

      • slaacaa@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        One a sidenote, I never got the point of e.g. xbox rooms and ping pong tables in offices. Why the hell would I want to relax in a place of work? I want to do my work, then go home (to relax). Playing 30 min video games in the afternoon would mean that happens 30 mins later.

      • Default_Defect@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        picture of male model with a hipster beard* Joe from Accounting

        Literally me.

        Except for the accounting job… and being a model.

  • terwn43lp@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    dress codes have always been rooted in racism & sexism. there’s absolutely no reason a job should control your hair unless it disrupts business, not for “offending conservatives”

  • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “They think this is better?”

    Yes, they actually do. They’re probably conservative dickheads. They know that pink hair is code for “I am a tolerant and kind person; I might be gay but not necessarily; I support counterculture ideas.”

    They hate the counterculture ideas. They don’t hate the color pink. Covering it up with a terrible wig makes it about something else.

    Or anyway, so they think. What they’ve actually done is given her an opportunity to start conversations about the pink hair.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      What they’ve actually done is given her an opportunity to start conversations about the pink hair.

      Keen insight. I wouldn’t have known she exists otherwise.

    • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      They’re probably conservative dickheads.

      Hah! It doesn’t even take that. All you need is a middle-management who doesn’t support the rights of their workforce, is inconvenienced should a customer gin up complaints about OP’s hair-color (whatever it is), and is generally just lazy and indifferent, learning from upper mgmt that growth & profits are 99% the things that count, followed by limiting liability situations. The workers themselves are just an inconvenient expense in the equation.

  • •••@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    landed a front-of-house role in the hospitality industry without a face-to-face or video interview

    Seems like the flawed interviewing process is to blame.

      • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Well, as a customer facing role, they have good reason for the requirement. She is representing this business. They have the right to represent themselves a cartain way.

    • Nefara@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If playfully poking fun at authority by demonstrating how the intended consequences of petty rules can be subverted creatively irks you, you’re in the wrong community, hun.

      • Chariotwheel@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, the only concern is whether the hair style could cause issues (notably a lot of hair can be an issue in some jobs), and even than you can manage most of the time.

        But an office is not one of those places.

      • norbert@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        The fun part of this statement is I’m not sure if you’re talking about the commenter or the employer.

    • mysoulishome@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Doing something to playfully point out the silliness of the policy…or she could sue. Seems like she did the less extra of those two options.

      I have a friend who was upset he couldn’t wear shorts to the office while women could wear capri pants…he found women’s capri pants in his size and wore them. I guess he’s extra as well?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      “Ms. Extra” spends her own time and money entertaining people while thumbing her nose at those corporate slugs. I think people who make other people happy are probably not throwing a tantrum.

    • ourob@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      She’s Ms. Extra because she’s resisting bullying by an incompetent employer?

      It’s not wholly unreasonable for a business to have some kind of appearance standard for front-of-house employees. But it is unreasonable to hire people for those positions literally sight unseen, and it’s a stupidly written policy if pink hair violates it while ridiculous wigs do not.

      Besides, it’s 2023. Brightly colored hair is hardly an outrageous and rare sight to see. No one is going to stop frequenting a business because they were greeted by someone with pink hair.

      • jtk@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        No one is going to stop frequenting a business because they were greeted by someone with pink hair.

        Some will but you didn’t want them there in the first place, any profit the company makes off their purchase was going to be negated into the red by taking up employee time with stupid requests and complaints.

    • Squirrel@thelemmy.club
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      1 year ago

      Does anyone younger than a boomer even care about hair color? I’m 37 and while pink hair might stand out to me, that’s only because of the rules written by those with sticks up their backsides, half a century ago. Ultimately, I don’t give a damn.

    • disgruntledpelican@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Maybe people with opinions like this are the ones who need to calm the fuck down. Okay little Miss. CryBaby? I have a sneaking suspicion that this comment isn’t the worst of your red flags either.

  • UmbrellAssassin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m sure there was a dress code when she signed up for the job. She agreed to it. Instead of realizing how childish she’s acting, she just doubles down and whines on the internet. Really a snapshot of people these days.

      • just_change_it@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Can I be full on nudist then?

        fwiw I think pink hair should be perfectly fine but there are some rules with dress that are a good idea. I don’t care if you wear a dress, slacks or have rainbow hair but generally I prefer people I do business with to wear stuff.

        Then there’s food safety. Things like hair nets and prohibiting certain jewelry and outfits in food processing plants is another example of when sometimes it’s ok to limit personal expression for the sake of others’. A server though? No such reason. Maybe a hair net if they brought food to your table or were also a chef.

        • LegionEris [she/her]@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          Literally none of the things you listed here count as modifying your body? As a reply to “nobody should have to arbitrarily change their body for their employer,” “sometimes there are practical clothing and equipment requirements” is practically a non-sequitur.

          • xietbrix@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Which is cool, except the subject of this entire thread has nothing to do with modifying body parts so it’s also fair for the responder to be referring to attire rather than actual body modification.

              • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                That is exactly what happens when one enlists in the U.S. military. Dress codes are a thing, and legitimate.

              • xietbrix@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                If that was the dress code when I signed up to the job then absolutely, that’s what I signed up for. If they changed the dress code however then I will challenge that.

    • kttnpunk@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      These expectations are the problem, if I agreed to sell my soul because I didn’t want to read a several page agreement while installing a free program, should they get it? Fuck no. Also, as somebody who’s worked all sorts of different positions: these rules are unenforceable, in a lot of cases. If a business hires you, they will try to keep that asset. A lot of times managers do not care what you wear until you’re someone they don’t like. Especially if you work in food service, and make a standard industry wage (that is, not shit!!) Push that envelope. Your coworkers will too, maybe.

      • Captain_Waffles@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Exactly. Like there can be safety concerns and such, but not to the extent that some places push it. Like my neurologists infusion center doesn’t care about tattoos, piercings, or hair color unless they might get caught on things or are NSFW. So all piercings must be small, smooth, and not hoops. Even gauged ears are fine as long as they have solid plugs. And most people are smart enough to only put NSFW tattoos in easily coverable places. Employers thinking they can just blinding dictate your entire appearance is absurd.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Well I can’t. There is no reason you should die your hair unnatural colors. Its harmful for a persons and company credibility and has no place in the work place