My company recently got a new VP of HR for the whole national company and with him is coming a new dress code. I apologize in advance for the rant.
I work in sales at a hotel and our dress code was pretty reasonable compared to what's out there. There's no uniform for my department and it's just an office job but we deal with clients and guests regularly so we just had to wear professional attire, no overly exposing clothing, no “lewd” tattoos (whatever that means) non slip shoes since we frequently have to walk through the back of house (we didnt have to wear them all the time though judt in the back since finding proffessional nom slips can be hard), and no colored hair. I figured I'd manage with these rules even though it's my first job with a dress code and I now have to die my hair brown after 9 years of unnatural colors, but whatever Im a big boy I'll manage. I have several tattoos that are pretty chill (animals and flowers) both sides of my nose and my semptum pierced and several cartilage piercings in each ear plus two lobe piercings. I've had these since before I was hired and it's never been an issue; no complaints from coworkers or clients.
Well new corporate VP of HR started a couple weeks ago and just yesterday we're informed not only is he visiting next week but effective immediately there is a new dress code that we better follow because he's a stickler for the rules. Same rules as before plus no shirts that show any shoulders even under a blazer, no tight pants, tights must be worn under skirts and dresses, no distracting patterns or colors (?), hair must be kept neat, shower regularly (no BO), no excessive perfumes or colognes, no excessive gels, 3 inch limit on heals, hair cannot appear dyed even if its technically a natural color, facial hair must be neat and trimmed, no tattoos on your hands, neck, face, or head, no excessive or distracting makeup, no face piercings except for a singular nostril piercing, no gages, and limit of two ear piercings.
Immediately half our line cooks are scrambling due to tattoo placement, every department has multiple people needing to figure out their piercings and even the HR generalist from one of our sister properties nearby has to deal with her 3 piercings on each ear, gages, red hair, 5 inch heels, and tank tops (under blazers or sweaters) she wears regularly. Our department now has 4 out 5 of our people trying to figure out how to navigate the dress code. Our wedding coordinator has to change his hair, our event detailing manager has to remove her eyebrow piercing that's still healing and some of her earrings, and even our Director has to overhaul her wardrobe of tasteful but technically shoulder exposing tops and dresses as well as the majority of the heals she wears. In trying to figure out what to do with my earrings and nose piercings.
We exceed our numbers each month, we get great feedback and have a plethora of consistent clientele. Obviously our appearance has not been hurting our ability to do our jobs, but here we are. Another thing to throw on the pile from the same company that ignores its employees, skimps on all training and support for new hires and pays minimum wage for all our servers, housekeepers, and cooks but doesn't understand why nobody excepts their offers.
So far they've 1) fired my boss while I was on vacation and didn't tell me until 10 days later when hr started the call with “don't freak out and quit on me okay”
2) failed to train me or even let me know where to get the list of my duties and SOPs until I had been there for 4 months
3) verbally offered my girlfriend $16 an hour in a f&b position and then sent her the offer letter for $13 after she had already worked a day. She told them the lowest she could do was $15, they said okay and sent her a follow up offer for $13.50 and then bad mouthed her to me in a leadership meeting after she quit after a week.
And more…
Thanks for listening to my rant