Discrimination for having long hair as a man?

GothicStirling

Jeez, people are quick to play the discrimination card.

He's lucky it wasn't my old boss, he would have given him £20 out of his pocket and told to go to the nearest barber.

My own opinion is that long hair on men looks awful. If he's a manager, he ought to make looking like a professional a priority.

geri1965_2

GothicStirling wrote: »

My own opinion is that long hair on men looks awful. If he's a manager, he ought to make looking like a professional a priority.

I take it you are not a Goth then, in spite of your username, since there are plenty of those with long hair!

According to the OP he is professional, smart and clean so whilst you are entitled to your opinion about long hair, it's irrelevant to the rest of your point.

Doll84

birkee wrote: »

As an employee, you give the employer what he wants in order to protect your job.
Having a job is not a right or an equality issue.

Did he have long hair when he was taken on for the job?

Yeah, when he was employed he had long hair, he has been with us for 6 years and we've had visitors to the store in that time in much higher positions than the chap who told him to tie his hair back and they never batted an eyelid.

I'm sure when he comes to work today he'll have his hair tied back, and we'll just leave it that I guess.

Norman_Castle

We work in a high street chain shop, he is a senior sales assistant, he is also the highest performing sales assistant we have

His hair clearly isn't affecting his ability to work and is accepted by customers.

Freddie_Snowbits

Minds me of my beavers at a recent co do with cubs. One piped up, 'I do not want to be in her group', looking towards one of my ex beavers. I explained he would be better off not calling him a her! He piped down quite Solomonly

eyeinthesky

You need to remember that not all forms of discrimination are illegal, only those described in law are. I think you would be hard pressed to describe this instance as sex/gender discrimination, rather than just company policy on acceptable appearance. Your colleague's role is a customer facing one. I think the company have a right to protect their projected image, and I don't think it's too much to ask a male to tie his hair back. They would also not be unreasonable to ask him to have it cut.

GothicStirling

geri1965 wrote: »

I take it you are not a Goth then, in spite of your username, since there are plenty of those with long hair!

No, it's a reference to Gothic literature, not a Goth in the slightest. The Gothic subculture is a rebellion in a very conformist way. The real subversive voices in Gothic were pre 20th century.

He may be clean, but the reality is a lot of customers [especially older generations] don't like men with long hair.

SarEl

GothicStirling wrote: »

Jeez, people are quick to play the discrimination card.

He's lucky it wasn't my old boss, he would have given him £20 out of his pocket and told to go to the nearest barber.

My own opinion is that long hair on men looks awful. If he's a manager, he ought to make looking like a professional a priority.

To be fair - there's no evidence that the guy is playing anything, not that he is in the slightest bit concerned by this request other than a relatively fair and throw away comment made to a co-worker. The OP is simply a colleague and it is she who thinks it may be discrimination.

But I would otherwise agree with all the other posters - if you are going to have to have a battle with your employer, then choose something wise to have it over. Rightly or wrongly, society in general still judges people by their appearance, and how individual people make those judgements vary widely. In an occupation where appearance matters, then somewhere on the spectrum of smart and relatively bland is a "good look". What that means is anybody's guess, but playing the game is best if you want to keep your job and impress people that you are, and want to, go places.

I do recall the case of a "clever" young man who, reading the company policy on dress code, turned up to work in black jeans because the policy said "no blue jeans". When his manager pointed out that jeans were unacceptable work wear, he questioned the policy, argued that it said blue and his were black, and pointed out that his (very expensive) black jeans were of better quality and expense than most other colleagues trousers. When he tuend up the next day wearing the black jeans he landed himself a verbal warning, then a written warning.... I am sure you can see where this is going, and it went there. His union suggested, very early on, that he "grow up", and refused to represent him after the first written warning because he refused to take their advice (I believe it was "grow up" and "buy a pair of work trousers"). He went to tribunal for unfair dismissal on his continuing "clever" basis that he was not wearing "blue jeans". His was one of the rare cases - costs were awarded against him.

Yes, the employer could have amended their policy to read no jeans, but I am pretty certain that that would have meant that he came to work in camoflage trousers, or some such!

I hasten to add he was not a client of mine - or anyone elses either. For some strange reason he couldn't get a lawyer to represent him! But the ppoint of this is - it isn't worth fretting over minor issues that can be easily remedied with no pain on either side. And they certainly aren't worth making a stand over.

Tiddlywinks

Oh for goodness sake.... I can't even be bothered to ask why someone (the OP) would take offence about this on behalf of the bloke that seems to have just accepted it.

Personal expression is not always an absolute right; sometimes employers get to make requests in line with their business model and the image they want to portray.

GothicStirling

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Oh for goodness sake.... I can't even be bothered to ask why someone (the OP) would take offence about this on behalf of the bloke that seems to have just accepted it.

Personal expression is not always an absolute right; sometimes employers get to make requests in line with their business model and the image they want to portray.

Exactly.

Also someone mentioned jeans. Waterstone's and HMV allow their staff to wear jeans, I hate that. I hate it so much I now go to Blackwells or Amazon.

I can only hope is that the new owners of Waterstone's sort their staff's standards out.