Discrimination against Tattoos in the Workplace
Uploaded by brianalu on Jan 11, 2016
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Discrimination against Tattoos in the Workplace
It is well known that tattoos are becoming a lot more popular in the world today and have always been a symbol of religion, culture, memory, or self-expression. These days, people are have visible tattoos in the workplace, which is a problem since body art is attributed to the negative perception those workers are seen in the workplace and thus, should not be allowed. This essay will examine discrimination against tattoos in the workplace.
Authors such as Foster and Hummel perceive tattoos as a representation of physical appearance and thus, reflective in their identity (1), their ideal has no basis in the workplace. Physical appearance at the workplace is one of the requirements needed by employers in a work setting. Grooming is today an employment attribute, which is a criterion used for selecting their desired employee. Due to the increased competitiveness for desired jobs in the labour market, those employees perceived to have non-desirable aspect find it hard to be recruited in their preferred jobs. Having a tattoo is one such factor that has been researched to limit a person choice of being selected or, increases the chances of discrimination in the workplace.
The underlying reason tattoos are not conducive to a workplace setting is due to the fact, tattoos are a reflection of who the people are. The perception and judgement established in those who interact with a person with tattoos is one who is not professional and as such, reflective in the underlying policies that are created in an organization to refuse exposure of tattoos in the workplace. An example can be seen in a five star hotel, if the concierge has visible tattoos, for bones of skulls, this reflects negatively on the character of the person and secondly on the character of the hotel who hired such a person. A hotel customers when faced with such an outcome is likely to have a negative perception of the hotel even if the thought are wrong in their mind, what they see justifies their opinions. However, if the person who has tattoos works has a dishwasher, the fact that they have tattoos, will not create any problems for the hotel and even if they are seen by customers, this will not change what they perceive the hotel to be.
Whether the negative perception of tattoos this arises out of perception derived through the media...