A rant about piercings

[Shinigami Unity]

Now that is a real rant. smile

I am the noncustodial parent paying child support at minimum wage - which still ends up being a whole ton of money when you're trying to support yourself. If the question was: Would I rather pay my child support but take out my piercings or be happy with a face full of metal but get arrested for not paying child support? I would have to say: taking care of my kids comes first. This was the reason why I took out all of my piercings for the Subway job - to make sure I could pay my child support.

I do regret it only because I could have found something better that allowed me to keep a few of them. But at the time, I had been unemployed for a couple of months and was paying my child support out of my own pocket. So it was something of an emergency.

My concern is the fact that employers judge potential candidates' ability to perform based on things like piercings and tattooes. While I can see it from food safety stand point, as well as a general safety standpoint, I cannot see how it would impair my ability to perform my job's requirements.

While sometimes I fall into the category of judging someone based on their appearance, in certain circumstances I would be willing to get to know the person enough to make a proper judgment. Not all long-haired men are lazy - not all tattooed women are loose - not all women who work out at the gym are lesbian (oh I get that a lot).  

[whosthatgirl80]

Hey

Sorry about having to take the piercings out. I was going to ask if you couldn't find another 2nd job until I read the previous post. Gotta do.... I don't have any myself, but I would be beyond miffed if someone told me I had to change something about my appearance. And yes I get that piercings _might_ potentially fall out, but to be completely gross, lots of things can fall out of a nose and I don't see fast food employees wearing nose plugs. And one would hope professionalism would more attitude than appearance. Reality disappoints again. stare

Random anecdotes: I was working at a major national museum a few years back when I decided to dye a big 'ol chunk of my hair fire engine red. Woke up a number of people up on the subway. :*) After I did it I sudenly realized that maybe my supervisor wouldn't be happy - I did interact with the public quite often. I was lucky - she looked at, congratulated me and said she was happy I was finally doing something to draw attention to myself! eek rofl

My sister was hired as a bartender in a somewhat upscale bar. She had a few tattoos at the time, only one small one being visible. Her bosses said she wasn't allowed to get anymore. She didn't - for about 2 years. Then over a period of 4 months got several, all very visible. They were a little annoyed at first, but by that point they knew her value, and how much the customers liked her. They rescinded the rule in her case, due to her "excellent professionalism!"

I thought a couple of positive stories would offer some hope! smile  

[Shinigami Unity]

Those were great - thanks!

Still on my quest to understand professionalism. We'll see how it goes when I have to start my next new task:

Social Networking.  

[bellaxxmuerte]

i recently applied for several jobs and one of them wanted me to take out my all my earrings and my nose ring. thank god i happened to get a job at a store that lets me keep them. i spent good money on those suckers and i'm not about to let them close evil  

[FallenSammy]

Over here if you work in the food industry you should not wear any jewellery, except a plain gold wedding band. As any kind of jewellery can harbour bacteria, or in the case of piercings little bits tha can fall out and contaminate food, this may be unlikely but it is still a risk and if some jewellery was to fall out into food tha was then served to a customer you can tachnically be sued