Why It’s Time To Change Your Company’s Dress Code

My employer (hospital ER) seems to have an outdated dress code. ER staff are expected to cover all their tattoos with long sleeves, and to maintain their hair in “conventional” colors. This hospital is located in a large, liberal city. It’s also in the ‘hood, if you know what I mean, and tattoos or blue hair are commonplace.

While I, myself, don’t have body ink, and my hair is now a graying shadow of its former self, I think the focus on tattoos and hair color has become out of hand. We almost lost one of our best RNs because of management harassment over her lavender hair, and there is a definite loss of per diem and temporary staff, who don’t want to wear long sleeves and can find plenty of work elsewhere. 

What should my colleagues do? The dress code seems entirely out of date for the times we live in, and whether or not I agree or practice it myself, shouldn’t the dress code reflect the times we live in? Forcing a professional nurse to wear long sleeves seems like a mandate from another century, when nurses were required to be plain and conservative.

Related Posts

25 thoughts on “Why It’s Time To Change Your Company’s Dress Code

  1. Awesome advice – make your approach logical instead of emotional, prioritize your battles, and work on baby steps to acclimatize the PTB to change.

  2. I worked for a hospital where employees with tatoos had to cover them. I’ve also been a patient many times, and can tell you that if a nurse with pink hair and a visible tatoo came to my room, I’d ask for another nurse. Why? I think any health care professional who would do that doesn’t have much respect for his or her body. Consequently, they might be sloppy about hygiene. I also worked for a blood bank, and know that if you have tatoos you can’t donate blood. The tatooing processs can give you an infection. It’s filthy, and in my opinion, a person with tatoos looks filthy. Yes, tatoos and colorful hair are in style nowadays. But so are see-through clothes and stilettos, and dress codes in hospitals do not allow them. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Maybe some companies allow it, but there are plenty of people like me who don’t like it, and we will ask for another nurse who doesn’t look like a gang member or a walking billboard.

    1. First, you can donate blood after giving a tattoo, according to the red cross: http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood/eligibility-requirements/eligibility-criteria-topic

      Second, yes, there are oher people who feel like you, which is why these policies currently exist. More and more, though, people care less and less. So, you make your complaint and you’ll get a new nurse, but I’m not going to complain about pink hair.

      I think pink hair is far different than see-through clothing.

    2. My hair is natural color and I do not have any ink or pierced body parts, but I just hope that we all can become less judgmental and won’t consider people filthy for the way they chose to self-express. I know a guy who shaves his head bold, weather leather pants, he is all covered with tattoos and yet he is the greatest doctor and hundreds of women send him Thank You notes for helping them to deliver a baby when many others would fail. Hope we can all learn to judge by actions and not looks.

        1. He obviously does not wear leather pants in the surgery room, but you get the picture of his looks.

    3. This saddens me. I know it is a thing and that many people have this same opinion. But to equate body art to sloppiness is disingenuous. I would rather be attended to by someone who is kind, compassionate, and knowledgeable but inked than someone who is rude, lacking compassion, yet uninked. While nothing I can say will change anyone’s opinion, I would ask to keep an open mind. Thing are often not what they seem and to generalize or categorize someone because of something such as the color of their hair or skin (whether it is what would be considered natural or not) is not right. I am not tattooed nor do I have any color of hair other than what my body produces but I have found is that some of the kindest, gentlest, most compassionate people are those who do not wall themselves up behind preconceived notions of what should or should not be according to some convention or another. The world is in constant motion and those who do not at least allow for differences in appearance or who exclude others for those differences risk themselves being excluded.

    4. That opinion sounds a lot like a relative who works in the medical profession. It was a tad hypocritical of her to criticize someone who was otherwise competent and able to to do the physical aspects of their job for having a visible tattoo when she herself was overweight. The best part was that she was a diabetic educator whose job was to counsel people on how to control their diabetes and manage their weight.

      I would question the competence of a doctor or nurse who was telling me to lose weight for the sake of my health when they were overweight or obese themselves. I know I need to lose weight but I don’t appreciate hearing that message from someone who is a big fat hypocrite. They clearly have no respect for their body if they aren’t trying to manage their weight. More hospitals and clinics rely on patient feedback and it isn’t size discrimination for patients to request medical professionals who practice what they preach to their patients in trying to live a healthy lifestyle.

    5. I wonder, would Trudy have an issue eating food prepared by someone with tattoos? Or having her life saved by a paramedic or firefighter or police officer with tattoos? Chefs, firefighters, police officers, military–a LOT of them have tattoos (in my experience). It’s no more unsanitary than having at some point gotten a papercut which has since healed. And it’s very likely she’s had to be assisted by *someone* with tattoos or piercings–just hidden under a shirt or pants. 🙂

  3. When I worked in dentistry (2006-2012, so kind of recently), I was told OSHA standards required long sleeves with a closed cuff (think sweat shirt band around the wrist) in order to minimize the risk of infection being transmitted from patient to clinical worker. In other words, it was required for the safety of the worker.

    I don’t know if that standard is still in place–or if it actually was then! Maybe they just told us that to get long sleeves on everyone!!–but if it is, I would think it would also apply to hospital staff that work directly with patients. If that’s the reason, they need to leave language about tattoos out of it.

    1. And for whatever reason, I just assumed this was a dress code for clinical staff…it occurs to me now it probably applies to business staff checking patients in and so forth. I definitely don’t see a problem with visible tattoos there.

  4. If you get tattoos on visible areas of your body, you should pretty much expect to be asked to cover it in an environment where you’re expected to look professional. If you can’t handle that, maybe you should reconsider getting the tattoo. Tattoos may be more and more common, but they still don’t look professional.

  5. I would think short sleeves would be more sanitary for employees who have to frequently wash/disinfect their hands in order to protect themselves and their patients.

  6. Suzanne, I might also argue a #6, “Look at the Customers.” As time has gone on, body art, whether in the form of a tattoo, hair style, or hair color, has become much more mainstream. And as with many things, customers who have body art may want to deal with employees who are similarly arted (that’s sounds weird) but still.
    As a side note but kind of related, one of the reasons I disliked high school so much is that there was an expectation that everyone would conform to something, whether it was stated or not, hence the various categories from jocks, to geeks, to the soshes (socialites, sometimes also called muffins for some reason), but at the same time, there was an expectation that we would be different. It’s a strange dichotomy. College was much more enjoyable because I didn’t have to conform, at least not at the university I attended. But flash forward 20 years and we’re still right there. Unstated expectations about a person’s appearance and their ability to perform. While I can agree that there is some anecdotal evidence linking the two, I cannot agree that it is 100% true 100% of the time and as I stated in a previous comment, disingenuous at best. Fads come and go . . . personally, I couldn’t wait until the polyester thing had run its course when I was a kid. And then can Miley please go away? But as with all things, times change. I just never want to be one of the people left behind because I was unwilling to change.

  7. I have been in the hospital many times. I have had doctors and nurses of all cultures and races. I can tell if they have good hygiene without checking for tattoos. They wash their hands, don’t have greasy hair, and don’t smell unwashed. Are they knowledgable? Are they caring? These are the things that matter to me.

    My niece had a home nurse with tattoos. Nothing offensive. She was an incredible nurse and OCD about cleanliness. Obsessively. She would sometimes dye some red streaks into her black her. No biggie. What people often don’t think of is that nurses have lives outside of work. They have personalities.

    My nurses wore short sleeves. I think the cuffed long sleeves are for the operating room.

    OP, I hope you have success with change. Lots of us are not offended. For the tiny few patients who freak out, there will always be some without tattoos who can be assigned those cases.

  8. Goodness it’s so good to work for a employer who’s ok with my asymmetric cut and blue hair (previously lavender).

    Tattoos are a fascinating subject. It’s an art form in Japan, used by sexual assault survivors to reclaim their bodies, aby many breast cancer survivors to decorate their scars and by an old class mate of mine as a memorial to her son who died just before he turned two. Nothing about that suggests a lack of respect for their body. In fact I think we need to respect others people a right to bodily autonomy without passing judgement about their level of self respect and other values.

    1. Also, I have a kind of icky feeling around the fact that most of the staff in the ER may be female. That veers into the area of patriarchy all control over how women look and present themselves. My body my rules about what I do to it and with it.

    2. Hello Cary if you are still reading this, would you kindly post your source for:

      “It’s an art form in Japan, used by sexual assault survivors to reclaim their bodies.”

      I was actually going to mention how the mayor of Osaka in the not so distant past demanded that all tattooed city employees disclose their tattoos, covered or not, and either take steps to erase them or resign.

      http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/17/mayor-osaka-tattoos

      There was backlash, and many people refused to cooperate, and I will admit some of Mr. Hashimoto’s ideas are way off the mark. But it happened and he isn’t the only one who feels that way about tattoos there.

      Many teaching jobs still will not accept a tattooed teacher, and I have heard of teachers being let go because their tattoo was seen during their free time.

      It would be interesting to read about the phenomenom you mention.

        1. Maybe Cary was thinking of Polynesian tattoos? Tattoos seem to be a coming of age tradition in some island nations. I had no idea tattoos were so taboo in Japan! I’m a bit sad that I may not be able to try a traditional bath should I visit, since I have tattoos that can be seen if I where a swimsuit. 🙁

          1. If you go to Japan to visit rather than work, nothing can really happen to you. You won’t be barred from the country or anything. While it is true that you may get some strange looks (especially from the more conservative elderly), it can happen anyway.

            On another note,

            I doubt it is any consolation, but most onsens (Japanese traditional bathhouses) do not allow swimsuits either. Bathing is done in the buff.

            Buuuuut …. you are not completely out of luck if this is something you want to experience.

            Some onsens will allow people with tattoos (they are just harder to find), and some offer private bathing areas (usually for families since otherwise the vast majority of the baths are segregated by sex), (you might have to pay extra).

            Here is pretty good entry about what to expect and how to behave:

            http://www.contentedtraveller.com/onsen-etiquette-japan-get-it-right/

            There is plenty more on the topic if you search “onsen etiquette” or “onsen tattoos”.

  9. Well done tattoos can be as much a piece of art as the Mona Lisa. Poorly done, they look like a right handed 2 year old scribbling with their left hand while standing on their head.
    Judging an individual simply because they “have tattoos” is a shallow as judging someone solely because of their manner of dress. That said, I like them. A facial tribal tattoo looks fine/correct on someone of Maori descent (or any other population that had them historically) but on a red haired freckle faced Irishman, it looks idiotic.
    Relaxing of dress codes is fine, as long as a minimum standard is set because you’ll get folks that push the boundary (“Why can’t I come to work in my PJs and fuzzy slippers?”)

  10. This post is timely as we are currently reconsidering our conservative business-professional dress code. The feedback from employees has been consistent; more “casual days”. It is important to people to have ownership in their dress and appearance (within reason). Thanks!

  11. You cite a tattoo policy that says, “Tattoos with slogans, graphics, sayings or offensive wording should be covered.” After ruling out slogans, graphics, and sayings, what kind of tattoo is left? Or is there a word misplaced, and this means *offensive* slogans, graphics, and sayings?

Comments are closed.

Are you looking for a new HR job? Or are you trying to hire a new HR person? Either way, hop on over to Evil HR Jobs, and you'll find what you're looking for.