30 March 2009
Tattoos and Your Job Search
Our US Army is getting more recruits with tattoos. And so are civilian hiring managers.
A third of the population 18 to 29 has a tattoo. Your Business Blogger(R) is a bit outside this age range and our five-kid penta-posse has not yet demanded needles with ink. But this is an exploding fad that will affect business hiring.
Body Piercing
Tools of the Trade
courtesy: Gotham
Here I will review only the deliberate body modifications. Not the accidental. (Scars are tattoos with better stories.)
We just hired a number of employees. Not one of the attractive young women had any body art. That I noticed. Not that I was looking.
My concern is less with my outdated preferences than that potential candidates knew my preferences. If I control cutting the check, I’ll control the body cutting. I’d like some input in what peeps I be hangin’ wit’.
I prefer non-smokers with no (visible) body art. Conjugated verbs are a plus.
Job seekers must remember that symmetry and chemistry between interview-er and interview-ee is what gets hired. It is not fair. But remember, I’m writing the check.
So tattoos and other self-mutilations are not for me. And it’s not likely that I would hire such decorations. But one of my managers with hiring authority might. One of my clients might. But not me.
(And please don’t ask me about trans-gender: If you take a meat cleaver to your manhood, there would probably not be a fit between us. Because you would be crazy in need of professional care.)
And I’m not the only fuddy-duddie. The Vault reports,
Companies with dress and grooming codes are on the strongest legal grounds when they defend their policies based on legitimate business reasons.
At [the progressive] Starbucks, “baristas” who serve the $5 lattes can’t display any tattoos or wear any piercing jewelry besides small, matched pair earrings. Each ear can’t have more than two piercings. Serving upscale coffee demands upscale workers, according to Starbucks, and tattoos don’t fit that scheme.
So what’s right? What is wrong with tattoos?
Sometime ago I questioned my Rabbi, Daniel Lapin, on the issue of tattoos. Yes, I’m Presbyterian who sits at the feet of the JollyBogger. But everyone also needs a Rabbi; a teacher. Your coach doesn’t have to be faith-based. But the “donations” can be tax deductible…
So, my Rabbi said that ancient Jewish tradition held that a person’s body does not belong to him; it belongs to the Creator and we borrow this earthly vessel for a while. Which is why the tattooing of identification numbers during the Holocaust was so humiliating to the Jews.
So if I interview you, or some other old codger interviews you, don’t tell us about your tattoos. It is not part of the job description.
You will be hired for your wisdom and your judgment.
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