Dress for Success

[Surgoshan]

A friend of mine is finishing up her career as a student teacher as part of a college program earning a teaching certificate/degree. Anywho, the final part of the program involves the college helping her find a teaching position. She just found out that the college has been informing potential employers that she has a tattoo, and this has been causing wariness on her part. This sparked a somewhat lively debate on another message board.

First, the tattoo is toward the back of her neck and is covered when she wears her hair down. Also, she wears concealer while at school.

The debate: should the college be telling people about the tattoo? Should the schools be considering this as a factor when they want to hire her?


My take:
A public school is one of the oddest locations on the planet. It has to, as part of its duties to its students, encourage freedom of thought and expression while also maintaining discipline and control of those students so as to foster that freedom in appropriate and constructive directions. In a similar fashion, its teachers have to be broad and accomodating, but have to be acceptable to the parents. Many, many parents don't want a hippy godless heathen freak goth satanic cultist foreigner teaching their children, and they think a tattoo means you're the some or all of those adjectives.

Do I find it annoying that I'll have to take my earrings out during the day when I teach? Yup. Will I find it annoying to wear long sleeves in the event that I finally get a tattoo? Yup. Is it the school's right to insist on a conservative, clean-cut appearance? Yup. A school may not pay as well as a bank, but it has to project a very similar image. You're entrusting both institutions with something precious and you want to be certain that they hold it in the proper regard and will be careful and cautious with it. You wouldn't hand your money to a grizzled, chain smoking, forty-something in a leather jacket with his hair in a pony tail, would you?

I will spend my first years as a teacher establishing that I'm a damn good teacher, and also I'll be dressing and speaking fairly conservatively while at school. In my private life, I'll be my usual asinine self, piercings and all. Of course, in my private life I won't be trying to establish an intimate, yet fully professional, rapport with 60 children (three classes of 20ish) of strangers.

The college is doing its part by the schools to tell them about the tattoo, I think, because it's something that most of those schools will be concerned about, at least until the latest batch of tramp-stamped soccer momlets finally gets their unplanned darlings into school. Part of the school's reputation and responsibility is helping its students find positions after they earn their degree. Part of their work in that is making sure that they earn a good reputation for advancing graduates who their employers will want to hire, which requires a fairly strict policy of openness and integrity. If they continually send applicants who don't meet a certain code, then those schools will stop taking applicants from the college.

Of course, the college is really failing its responsibilities big-time by not discussing this issue with my friend in the first place. Part of preparing her for and sending her into the world of education requires discussing decorum and behavior in the classroom, as it's a huge part of education. The tattoo issue is part and parcel of that and they shouldn't have blind-sided her with this.


So: where do you guys stand on this? Dress codes in general? Tattoos? How good in bed was the last person with a tattoo that you slept with?

[Grillick]

I think it's ridiculous.

I'm opposed to dress codes in general, though I recognize the importance of the occasional exception. I do not believe that public school teachers should be one of those.

On average, women with tattoos are better in bed than women without, in my experience.

[AxelFendersson]

If the woman had tattoos that were clearly visible in an interview, they would perhaps have legitimate grounds to take an interest. But a discrete tattoo that is hidden under most circumstances really shouldn't be an issue for anyone.

As for the college telling potential employers about it, that is frankly disgraceful. I cannot see any possible reason for them to do this. Any tattoos that are remotely relevant would be visible to an interviewer anyway, so that doesn't make sense. The only possible reason I can think of is that they disapprove of the tattoo and therefore feel they have some duty to prejudice employers against the woman. Which is, as I say, a disgrace.

[Phaedrus]

I'm always surprised when this comes up, since getting a tattoo is 99x out of 100 not spiritual or anything like that, but is just a personal/artistic/fashion choice.

I have quite a few friends with arm, ankle, hand, foot, whatever tattoos... none of them work in a "professional" environment. I think people with shoulder, back, etc. tattoos can get away with any type of work, because they are so easily hidden. Most everyone I know who has made a social choice to look or behave "outside of the norm" has found themselves a career that supports that choice. I have always considered settling yourself with that fact of life just part of growing up.

If you want to work in a certain environment, you are going to have to follow some very baseline rules. If you want to work for the Pentagon or State Department, you probably aren't going to be able to recreationally smoke marijuana. If you are going to work in a law firm, you probably aren't going to be able to wear Rage Against the Machine T-shirts... unless they are under a dark dress shirt I guess. My guess is that if you want to work at a pharmaceutical company that performs animal testing, you might not want to be a member of PETA either... my guess is they look into stuff like that.

There are definitely certain jobs I won't even look at based upon my own standards / personal choices.

If her tattoo is where anyone can see it (ok, not really, but on a windy day...), and somehow she let her school officials know about it in the first place, then I don't particularly see how she can complain about it. Seems to me she can simply find a teaching job on her own (which is pretty easy to do, at least here on the east coast U.S.), where she won't have to let perspective employers know about her tattoo.

However, if a potential employer then calls her school for a reference, and they say something about her tattoo... then she's in a much better position to complain, or maybe even take legal action. Right now she's using a service they provide under their own rules.

[Crazed123]

The debate: should the college be telling people about the tattoo? Should the schools be considering this as a factor when they want to hire her?

No, and it's their own damn choice.

'Nuff said.

[Simon_Jester]

I would argue that while it's the school's choice, they should decide that it doesn't matter.

I mean, basically functional people have been getting tattoos for decades now; it's not a sign of mental instability or anything.

[Kea]

I understand about schools having to project a professional image. I understand about not looking slovenly. I went to a school with a frickin' uniform for crap's sakes, and most of the teachers must've been deliberately wearing the most dowdy clothes they could get their hands on. I get it.

But in the case of a discreet, easily hidden tattoo, the college should mind their own damn business. It's not as if she habitually dresses like a stripper, or a bum, or has such poor personal hygiene she can be smelled from 20 yards off. If they're just bothered by the very idea that she has a tattoo, even one that you can't normally see, they need to get over themselves. Would they concern themselves with her underwear choices, too?

If they're really concerned that her appearance would undermine the college's image with employers, they should have talked to her first, in private, about the importance of having a professional appearance and advising her to keep her tattoo hidden. What kind of college goes around deliberately undercutting the employment prospects of its graduates?

[Simon_Jester]

One that's more afraid of getting sued by employers for failing to disclose information that the employer considers relevant than it is of getting sued by students for disclosing information the students would prefer to keep secret?

[Weremensh]

I think it would be a very bad idea for her not to disabuse them of this notion, myself; with their help finding a job, she's going to need the money anyway.

[caffeine]

Dress codes get on my tits - to put it frankly. Take my current job - the new recruit for this year has come to work every day dressed basically the same as for his interview - jacket and tie and the works. I'm accustomed to a sliding scale of casualness, from trainers, jeans and shirt to proper shoes, trousers and shirt. Now I'm expected to live up to his standards - though so far I've pleaded the genuine excuse that I can't afford any smart clothes and gotten away with it.

The thing is, he’s nowhere near as good at his job as the scruffily-dressed student he replaced. Not to sound offensive, but he’s quite dim and a bit slow on the uptake. My boss, however, is incapable of seeing these things in him, because she’s blinded by the obsession so many seem to have with appearance – he looks smart, carries a briefcase – he must be good. It’s absurd.

That said, I understand why many companies need to require people to look presentable – simply because plenty of customers and clients will think exactly the same way as my boss. This annoys me greatly.

On the specific topic – it’s even more absurd. Aside from my general objections, it’s not even as if tattoos are rare or a sign of rebelliousness any more. Discreet tattoos are everywhere – and you can’t even see them when you're all dressed up for work. Why would anyone care?

[micah]

Way back in high-school, there was talk of my school going year-round and establishing a dress code with uniforms. The year-round thing didn't bug me, but the dress code sure did. I've been a t-shirt and jeans guy since the 6th grade, and being told that my standard of clothing was now inadequate ticked me off. I'm a simple person, and I like simple things. A daily uniform seemed a bit much. I was in the band, and to me a uniform was to be used for a purpose. It set you and your group apart from people on those occasions you wore it. Wearing a school uniform every day cheapened the idea of a uniform to me. What's so special about it if everyone's wearing it?

In a professional working environment, I understand that you need to put on a little bit of a performance. You have to "dress the part," as it were. I generally have no problem with that, as long as "the part" is reasonable and doesn't have a bunch of stupid rules attached to it that have no meaning. My philosophy is, as long as you look decent and presentable, you're fine. All else is up to you.

For your friends specific case, it is extremely inappropriate for her school to even mention that she has a tattoo. The school should be playing her up as a qualified individual that other schools would want to hire. It should then be up to those schools to decide through an interview if she's appropriately attired and presentable for the job. From your description, her tattoo probably wouldn't even be noticed, and thus completely irrelevant. If it were visible, it would be relevant, and the school would have to decide if it is or isn't an issue based on what it is, where it is, and how big it is. Like it or not, those are relevant things to consider. You wouldn't want a teacher with an erect penis tattooed on their forehead teaching your 3rd grader, would you?

While I have my own reasons for disliking tattoos, there was one teacher I met who had appropriate tattoos. He was a Hawaiian Studies teacher that traveled from school to school, and he had Hawaiian tattoos on his arms and face that were clearly visible, and he had some on his legs and chest that weren't visible. If you've never seen Hawaiian tattoos, they generally are patterns using lots of triangles. As a Hawaiian Studies teacher, this was both appropriate and meaningful. It enhanced his teaching, giving him an air of authenticity and authority, rather than detracted or distracted from it.

[FreakyBoy]

On average, women with tattoos are better in bed than women without, in my experience.

Given the number of scandals in recent news about female teachers and their teenaged students, I think this would make a perfectly valid explanation of why parents would not want tattooed teachers in school.

[Grillick]

I didn't say anything about the ease with which I got them into bed, now did I?

[Kea]

I'm gonna boot this over to GC, since it isn't particularly POOPy. *punt*

[antichris]

This is part of why I've gravitated towards fields where no one cares how you dress.