Piercings in the Workplace

Piercings are becoming more socially acceptable. You can’t go anywhere nowadays without seeing someone with a ring sticking out of their lip, nose, eyebrow, etc. Piercings are being embraced in today’s workplaces, but how much is too much? If you go to a restaurant, would it matter to you if your waitress or waiter had a large hoop ring in one eyebrow, a large hoop in his or her lip, and another ring dangling down from in their nose? More importantly, would it force you to stop going to the establishment altogether?

If you are seeking employment and show up to a job interview with an abundant amount of piercings in your face, you run the risk of your potential future employer denying you a job. Some companies are lenient when it comes to their employee's piercings. For example, Wegman's grocery store. 

“I work at a grocery store called Wegman’s and they honestly don’t care about piercings. I have a lot of piercings; one in my nose, my tongue web, and multiple holes in my ears. I even had a piercing right in the middle of my lip for a little while and they didn’t say one word to me.” says Alyssa Metzler.

Meanwhile, at other facilities, they take a different stand on piercings. For example, Price Chopper, a chain of grocery stores that originated and located in Upstate New York, do not allow their employees to have visible piercings. When working at this grocery store, you have to either take your jewelry out, or put a clear, non-visible retainer in place of the jewelry. If you have a nose ring, it must be a "stud", which is a small piece of jewelry that can barely be seen.

Now, this brings up a good argument: is it considered discrimination if companies deny a person employment simply because the potential employee has stretched ears and a stud in their lip? The answer is no. According to Jay P. Whickson's article "Workplace Discrimination on Tattoos & Piercings", it states: 

"The employer has a right to establish a dress code for his organization. If you have body piercings, he can request that you remove the related jewelry while at work. While you can't remove a tattoo, your employer can demand that you cover the tattoo while you're working. If a pierce-free, tattoo-free look is part of the uniform and it's in the dress code, he has every right to fire you if you don't follow the rules."

Some employers are very lenient when it comes to body piercings, and some strictly follow their dress code. All in all, it depends on where you apply to or where you work. Not all companies are going to welcome a person with several holes in their face onto their "team", because that person needs to represent the company. Facilities that are "family friendly" might not want to hire someone with multiple piercings, because it could affect the store's atmosphere. Let's say an elderly couple went to a restaurant and their waiter had three inch holes in their ears. The couple would most likely be completely unimpressed and never return to the restaurant again.

Now that doesn't mean that having three inch holes in your ears is a bad thing, it's just not very pleasing to some people and companies need to think about their customers when hiring an employee. Though, piercings are becoming more and more acceptable in society today and certain companies and employees need to find a happy medium that will please them both.