Tattoos/Image in the workplace - your thoughts. (Austin, Mercedes: to live in, beach)

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by Aquitaine

As a soon-to-be Austin area employer I can say that the only extent to which I care about your personal decisions is the extent to which it impacts your job. If your job is sitting in an office or hanging out with me all day, you have to be very extreme (like the example above) before I would draw any conclusions, and even then the only conclusion I draw is that the guy in that photo has no regard whatever for what other people think of him ... an admirable trait in some areas but not necessarily somebody I'm going to hand keys to the shop.

But that dude is a red herring. As an employer I don't have the privilege of deciding whether I like something or don't; I only get to determine what impact, if any, it's going to have on other employees and on clients. If your job involves face-to-face meetings with old ladies then probably I would be forced to be more 'conservative' about it even though it really makes zero difference to me personally.

What I find is that some people don't distinguish between an employer having to make a business judgment and a personal judgment. They could hardly have less to do with each other.

Actually I think it is very obvious that, the guy in the photo cares TOO much about what people think if him.

[Aquitaine]

Ha! Yes, indeed. But in the occasionally authoritarian sense of employer and employee, he's going to act like the reverse of that ... or, in other words, he doesn't care what I think, and while I've worked with plenty of people whose views I don't share, that might be a bridge too far.

[testmo]

The idea that because you have tattoos you cannot be considered "professional" or act professionally with clients face to face is ridiculous. I wear long sleeves/sweaters 100% of the year because of a sleeve. Lots of bright girly colors (on a guy) but no hate speech/insignia. Even children are not shocked or horrified at tattoos so what is the issue?

My clients aren't Catholic nuns just regular people. I am sure lots have tattoos themselves. Half the time they notice part of it anyway. No one cares

[Aquitaine]

Just as the idea that tattoos have no impact at all is ridiculous. Neither position is correct. It is entirely a matter of degree.

If you work with my clients and have even a visible tattoo on your arm or leg (it's Austin, shorts happen) I don't care. We're a tech company. If you have a face tattoo or, really, anything that in my judgment is actually going to impact our business, that's a different question. So you ought to be able to answer your own question of "what is the issue." If you can honestly answer "there is no issue" then there is your answer for the original poster. But some people do not answer honestly: they feel that they are entitled to do what they like with their body (and they are) but that entitlement does not extend to an impact on my business.

Where this gets fuzzy is if I'm just a crazy coot who imagines that there is an impact when there really isn't. This, too, is a human problem: I am making a judgment call and I may make it incorrectly. If so, I have harmed both you and my business more than had I been more reasonable. And like I say, personally I have no problem with them and have grown up around them (my brother has a ton of them!) -- but since most business owners won't ever admit to anything impacting hiring decisions for fear of being sued, I am happy to represent them for a moment and say that "appearing professional" and "acting professional" are not always the same thing and that the metric I would use to determine these things is not "do you frighten children" but "will our clients decide that we are a fly by night outfit with no discipline even if they would be bigoted fools to do so" because I do not have the luxury of persuading my clients otherwise.

I am very thankful that I have never been in that position, and that as far my own business goes, everybody works remotely and hardly anyone deals with clients in person. So I might even hire skull guy if he was a good programmer and nobody ever had to look at him!

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by testmo

Half the time they notice part of it anyway. No one cares

Your wrong, most of them that notice probably do have an opinion about it, and it may often not be favorable.

[testmo]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Your wrong, most of them that notice probably do have an opinion about it, and it may often not be favorable.

not favorable? like the banker who then shows me his military era tattoos? or the old grump who jokes with me about his son going crazy and getting tattoos? I've never had someone be unfavorable or picked up on it. I've never lost any business with my clients. In fact I'd venture to say I work better than the others around me. I am "approachable"

It is coming to a time where the average person you run into has some type of body modification/tattoo.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by testmo

I've never had someone be unfavorable or picked up on it. I've never lost any business with my clients.

Actually, you can't know that for sure. Many, many people won't confront an uncomfortable situation directly... and a lot of people ARE made uncomfortable by excessive tattoos or body modifications... but will simply express their discomfort or minimize their contact in some more passive way.

It might be a referral not given, a tip shaved by a buck or two, a couple who don't return (and then tell their friends about their icky experience), etc. But unless you are exclusively dealing with a clientele that is JUST LIKE YOU, you are constantly going to be judged by customers, and your appearance is one of the things you'll be judged on. It's not everything, bit it IS something.

As an earlier poster correctly pointed towards, it is clearly ridiculous to claim there is no impact from having a radical appearance, one that strays too far from the conventional.

[Aquitaine]

@testmo, I think it's entirely possible that you're correct in that you could navigate many industries and never have any impact at all, but I would not go so far as to say that, in general, one can simply expect that to be the case across the board.

As you see in tons of other threads, Austin is only liberal compared to the rest of Texas. I know people on both sides of the fence in Austin and some would compare their tats to yours while others wouldn't think favorably of them but also probably wouldn't have that form the entire basis of their opinion.

Between two otherwise identical candidates, though, I would not expect them ever to help you in most careers, but I wouldn't be surprised were you to readily find a number where there was simply no impact at all.

Just don't expect that everywhere you go.

[S6Sputnik]

It all depends, but IMHO if a tattoo cannot be easily hidden for work its in the wrong spot!

[love roses]

Many of the people I work with have tats, and the only thing they are required to do is cover them up so they aren't easily seen by parents. So far though, they haven't hired anyone that's sleeved or has facial tattoos I personally never had any done, although nearly every one of my friends have them, including the church types believe it or not.