Posted by CareerJunction Company
20/11/2014, 07:00
Are the bank tellers with the eyebrow and tongue piercings, the waitresses with flashing gold teeth or the tattooed state doctors unprofessional?
In an article published in Psychology Today, US psychologist and business administrator Steve Albrecht argues that companies are violating freedom of expression with policies on tattoos and piercings, claiming that they want their employees to appear professional.
“Doctors, teachers, lawyers, brain surgeons, astrophysicists, cops, fire-fighters and grandmothers have tattoos,” Albrecht said.
“You’d be hard pressed to find a profession that doesn’t have tattooed people. This is because body modifications are not limiting in any way, shape or form.
“At the heart of the idea of ‘employee professionalism’ is the desire of a business and its people to be perceived as trustworthy, hardworking, service-oriented, helpful and reassuring. To not allow tattoos or piercings is to assert that people with them are not any of those things. This is baseless, and millions of body-modifiers defy this at their jobs daily.”
In South Africa, most companies do not have policies relating to body modification but recruitment experts warn that there are employers who may not hire a tattooed or pierced candidate.
There may not be policies because everyone is quite sensitive about discrimination.