'It’s so good to see him still fuming about it after months': Pierced employee out-logics manager and gets to continue wearing her piercings at work

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Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Sep 19, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

The workforce has come a long way from its strict dress codes of the early 2000s. Now, business casual can include tattoos and piercings. However, great change doesn't come all at once, so for now, there are still places out there that will make you remove your piercing for some made up rule. 

One woman started a job and was told she must remove her industrial ear piercing. And industrial is a piercing in the ear that is a bar going from a hole made at the top of the ear to the side middle. It's a very cool look. But for some reasons, there are people out there who would call that look "unprofessional." Like, it's a personal style choice, what does that have to do with work?

Anyways, this woman on Reddit writes about how she duped her own manager into forcing his hand into allowing her to keep her piercing in. At the job she was asked to remove her piercing. Which was confusing, because all of her other coworkers had multiple piercings in their ears. When she pointed that out, her manager told her it was because they were two separate earrings and not one bar going through their ear. 

So, she went and got two separate earrings to put in those holes, except they still looked like an industrial. When her manager came over to yell at her again for having the industrial, she simply pointed out that it was in fact two different piercings just like everyone else and this look was clearly written as "allowed" in the handbook. That manger left fuming, but defeated. And she's still working there currently with no more issues about her piercing. 

Sometimes you just have to get a little creative to not loose your self-expression at work. 

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    Arm
    via bronx. via Flickr
  • 02
    Font - Posted by u/andreaawakening 17 hours ago My piercing bothers you? Sure I'll listen to you. S OC
    via u/andreaawakening
  • 03
    Font - This is from a few months ago when I first started at my new job. I apologize in advance for any error.
    via u/andreaawakening
  • 04
    Font - On one of my first days my manager said I had to remove my piercing (I have an industrial piercing, like this), since I had the piercing on my interview and he was the one to interview me and didn't say anything then, I said I wouldn't.
    via u/andreaawakening
  • 05
    Font - He let it go for a few days then told me again, my reply this time was "all of my collegues have at least one piercing on the upper ear, so why am I the only one that has to remove it?" and he said,
    via u/andreaawakening
  • 06
    Font - I quote "does any of your colleagues have a stick that goes through the whole ear? No, just you, so remove it" Right after the end of that shift I went to my piercer and got a set of separate but matching piercings that I can wear in the single holes
    via u/andreaawakening
  • 07
    Font - (which I only ever do while working), the first time he saw me with the new piercing he said that we'd been through the conversation plenty of times and to just remove the piercings, to which I said "see you told me yesterday that the problem was I had one piercing that went through my whole ear,
    via u/andreaawakening
  • 08
    Font - now I don't anymore, I have two separate piercings! All good!" It's so good see him still fuming about it after months and not being able to do anything since I've technically removed the piercing he wanted me to remove.
    via u/andreaawakening
  • 09
    Font - Daddiofink 15 hr. ago Good for you. Back in long lost history (early 80s) I had a single pierced ear. Not quite avant-garde for a male in the 80s, but not "normal" either.
    via u/Daddiofink
  • 10
    Font - Working at McDonalds and neither my manager nor the regional supervisor said anything. The franchise owner came in and told me to remove it. "I can't it's fresh and will close."
    via u/Daddiofink
  • 11
    Font - He said, "Take it out and put a string in it." Looked him dead in the eye and responded, "No" and just walked away like the conversation no longer interested me.
    via u/Daddiofink
  • 12
    Font - Surprisingly, I never heard another word about it. Lived at home still, so there was zero risk for me. Felt good. Screw these idiots that think they own you for minimum wage.
    via u/Daddiofink
  • 13
    Font - splorp_evilbastard · 10 hr. ago I got my left ear pierced when I turned 18. I was working at Pizza Hut when I was in my late 20s and the area manager told me I had to take it out.
    via u/splorp_evilbastard
  • 14
    Font - The handbook literally said no more than one piercing per ear and I said I have 1 in my left ear and 0 in my right. He said "take it out because you can either have 1 on each ear, or none". So, I got a piercing at the top of my right ear.
    via u/splorp_evilbastard
  • 15
    Font - Next time he came in, he saw my left ear and told me to take it out. I turned my head to show him the other earring and he got mad because the earrings weren't in the same place on each ear. I told him. "one in each ear, just like you said, and follows the handbook rules, too".
    via u/splorp_evilbastard
  • 16
    Font - MonkeyNuts3107. 6 hr. ago My sister did this to my dad. We weren't allowed piercings till we were x age, this then got changed to 16. Sister mentioned she wanted more than one hole in one of her ears and was told nope, one hole in each ear. Doesn't bother arguing. Comes home with a hole in the top of one ear.
    via MonkeyNuts3107
  • 17
    Font - Dad not amused, her response was 'you already changed the rules, and you said one hole in each ear, I've got one hole in one ear'. Dad concurred and loves telling people to this day how he was outlogiced by his 16 year old daughter.
    via MonkeyNuts3107
  • 18
    Font - WifeCalls MeMrDD. 12 hr. ago You called his bluff. He didn't really want to fire you for that, with the hassle it would cause him. He assumed you would simply cave and that would be that.
    via u/WifeCallsMeMrDD
  • 19
    Font - . am_I_doingthisrite84 · 13 hr. ago The funny thing about these policies is that it's almost always blamed on how the customers view you, but the customers never complain.
    via u/am_I_doingthisrite84
  • 20
    Font - It's an assumed problem that management wants to control. I've never been somewhere, saw an employee with a tattoo or piercing and thought "wow, I'm never coming here again"
    via u/am_I_doingthisrite84
  • 21
    Font - LunaPolaris 11 hr. ago Right? I'm 55 and when I see employees with piercings, tattoos and bright colored hair I feel like "This seems like a cool place for them to work. Things have come a long way since I was in my 20s".
    via LunaPolaris
  • 22
    Font - I remember a temp job in the 90s when I had five ear piercings (regular lobe piercings, nothing industrial) and got called to the manager's office and told that I could only wear one pair of earrings at a time and they had to match (sometimes I would lose an earring and wear two similar earrings that didn't exactly match. They weren't
    via LunaPolaris
  • 23
    Font - going for that). It was a county office where we had zero contact with the public, it was just filled with the kind of self-appointed hall monitor types that also like to get elected to their HOA boards and go around with a ruler measuring the height of their neighbors grass just in case they can cite and fine them for a violation.
    via LunaPolaris
  • 24
    Font - I, for one, am glad to see that kind of policing of self- expression starting to fade away. GenX was so much more creative in the 80s but it seems like as soon as we had to start making a living all of that got slapped down. I'm happy to see that we raised our kids to not be so judgemental about appearance.
    via LunaPolaris

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office dress code failblog employee work story malicious compliance workforce Reddit
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