Of course, I can only speak for myself, but I've found that all that conformity BS was a lie. I've never had adverse reactions to what I wear or how I look. Well, I suppose if I wasn't hired at a place because I had a second lobe piercing, I'd never know. If that was the case, I dodged a bullet.
Actually scratch that...I had plenty of adverse reactions...when I worked shitty jobs. I used to sell professional hair products and colored my hair purple. While they didn't fire me, they reduced my hours to about 4 hours a week and told me rudely to change it to a natural shade. This was at a store that sold the haircolor I used to color my hair.
No, I haven't had many problems since I've gone full corporate. There were a few memorable conversations though:
1. My manager closes the door and tells me "Look. I don't have a problem with what you wear, but if you want to be a publicist, you have to look the part. I keep a pair of heels under my desk. I hide my tattoos." What happened? both of us left the department to better things.
2. "I thought you had great style and you just looked like you'd fit in." when I asked one of my hiring managers why they chose me over the other candidates. Of course I was insanely qualified too. I wore an all-black outfit with leather pants and green hair done in victory rolls. The place was at a art gallery/publisher...obviously not typical.
3. "You can wear anything you want...just please...no shorts" Ok fair enough! This was my favorite manager and we're still friends today.
4. "I don't have a problem with your appearance." from the worst manager ever. It came out of nowhere, which makes me think that she DID have a problem. She did have a problem with me not laughing at her manager's bad jokes. I can't even...
The people who hire me tend to be oddballs and outcasts themselves. Managers hire the right person for them...chances are, they're going to hire someone similar to themselves. My current manager is a season-tickets-holder sports fan who works out at the gym and is pushing 50...Nope, we aren't similar on a superficial level. And I've never gotten the "dress code" talk from him. I thought I saw his eyes linger on my giant pentagram earrings once and was sure he was going to say something. But then later when we got our assignments, I noticed he assigned all of the witchcraft/paranormal/occult/vampire stuff to me.
Unless you're in high school, working at the mall, or are a juggalo, you don't really have to worry about what you wear, after the interview anyway. Your manager picked you for a reason, and it probably had nothing to do with what shoes you were wearing. When things go bad and your manager starts attacking your wardrobe choices, chances are there are other areas more serious that aren't working out between you and them.
Bottom line is no competent manager is going to lose a competent worker because of a few fashion choices. So might as well stay true to yourself and let the right person find you and work with you, instead of trying to change yourself to meet some kind of conformity standard.
That said, I DID do a dark fashion workwear post a while back...
Actually scratch that...I had plenty of adverse reactions...when I worked shitty jobs. I used to sell professional hair products and colored my hair purple. While they didn't fire me, they reduced my hours to about 4 hours a week and told me rudely to change it to a natural shade. This was at a store that sold the haircolor I used to color my hair.
No, I haven't had many problems since I've gone full corporate. There were a few memorable conversations though:
1. My manager closes the door and tells me "Look. I don't have a problem with what you wear, but if you want to be a publicist, you have to look the part. I keep a pair of heels under my desk. I hide my tattoos." What happened? both of us left the department to better things.
2. "I thought you had great style and you just looked like you'd fit in." when I asked one of my hiring managers why they chose me over the other candidates. Of course I was insanely qualified too. I wore an all-black outfit with leather pants and green hair done in victory rolls. The place was at a art gallery/publisher...obviously not typical.
3. "You can wear anything you want...just please...no shorts" Ok fair enough! This was my favorite manager and we're still friends today.
4. "I don't have a problem with your appearance." from the worst manager ever. It came out of nowhere, which makes me think that she DID have a problem. She did have a problem with me not laughing at her manager's bad jokes. I can't even...
The people who hire me tend to be oddballs and outcasts themselves. Managers hire the right person for them...chances are, they're going to hire someone similar to themselves. My current manager is a season-tickets-holder sports fan who works out at the gym and is pushing 50...Nope, we aren't similar on a superficial level. And I've never gotten the "dress code" talk from him. I thought I saw his eyes linger on my giant pentagram earrings once and was sure he was going to say something. But then later when we got our assignments, I noticed he assigned all of the witchcraft/paranormal/occult/vampire stuff to me.
Unless you're in high school, working at the mall, or are a juggalo, you don't really have to worry about what you wear, after the interview anyway. Your manager picked you for a reason, and it probably had nothing to do with what shoes you were wearing. When things go bad and your manager starts attacking your wardrobe choices, chances are there are other areas more serious that aren't working out between you and them.
Bottom line is no competent manager is going to lose a competent worker because of a few fashion choices. So might as well stay true to yourself and let the right person find you and work with you, instead of trying to change yourself to meet some kind of conformity standard.
That said, I DID do a dark fashion workwear post a while back...
How about you guys? Any adverse reactions from your managers re your style choices? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!
