The working uniform [ Is it nessesary ]

This is a rather old article, but it seems to me it`s actual till today...

Grooming Counts or Does It?

Many companies have established rigid grooming standards for their employees. Walt Disney World, for example, insists that employees follow established guidelines for hairstyle, jewelry, makeup, and facial hair. Airlines also require flight attendants to meet certain weight restrictions. Federal Express and United Parcel Service, too, impose grooming standards that limit the length of men’s hair. Currently, however, some of these policies are being justifiably challenged in courts by workers who claim that the standards infringe on their religious rights. At issue is whether employers have the right to enforce rigid grooming rules on workers whose appearance expresses their religious beliefs or their cultural heritage.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), no company is allowed to prevent its employees from expressing religious beliefs through their appearance. The EEOC claims that forbidding such expressions of religious belief violates the Civil Rights Act. Both FedEx and UPS, for example, have fired drivers who refused to cut off their dreadlocks—long, thick strands of knotted or braided hair associated with Rastafarianism (a religious and political movement originating in the 1930s in Jamaica). Similarly, several police officers employed by the Dallas Police Department were reprimanded or fired for wearing dreadlocks. In these cases and others, the EEOC has interceded on behalf of the employees.

The question of civil rights aside, employers also need to keep in mind that an employee’s appearance seldom interferes with his or her ability to do the job. In other words, employers can afford to be more tolerant. Chris Warden, for example, was terminated from his job as a FedEx driver for wearing dreadlocks even though his manager’s evaluations called him a superior employee. Warden’s case proves that wearing dreadlocks does not affect an individual’s job performance and therefore should not be a cause of dismissal.

As the multicultural population of the U.S. continues to grow, companies will be challenged more often for their insistence on strict grooming policies. It’s high time employers embraced diversity and redefined outdated notions about what is “reasonable” and “acceptable”
(David France, “Law: The Dreadlock Deadlock,” Newsweek, September 10, 2001).

What`s your opinion of this problem?
Do you have to wear any uniform on the place of your employment, are you satisfied with it?
As to me, I think there are several spheres where wearing of uniform is nessesary.
Such as the employers of hotels, diffrerent technical services, restaurants and so on - they must be different from their clients in outward appearance. It`s no nessesity to speak about the rigid uniform of medical staff or of the army.
If a person keeps some traditions which prohibit wearing uniform, he can`t work in the spheres where the uniform is obligatory.
But when the rigid style of appearance is not explicable I think it`s a nonsense to insist on rigid grooming standards.

In fact, I have this problem now. When I found my job (a receptionist in a hotel) noone said to me that I have to wear uniform. I went to a shop and bought some white sweaters and classical trousers though I prefer sports style (jeans, trainers). I did it because I understand that people who come to any hotel expect the receptionist to be dressed like this. On the contrary, my colleague wears everything she likes (I must admit that she has a disgusting taste). Now my Boss insists that she dresses up like I do.
Anyway, I think that people MUST wear uniforms if they work for organisations where they communicate a lot with people, and people of some certain proffesions like receptionists , police, etc...

I can tell about my own experience that made me realize the nessesity of wearing uniform.
When I worked in a hospital, all doctors after coming to work took off their "civil" clothes and put on surgical costumes and white coats over them.
It was my first working day and I didn`t know why did they dress so - it wasn`t a surgical department.
I put on a white coat above my everyday dress and went to the ward to examine the arrived patients. The first my patient that day was a little baby with vomiting and diarrhoea .
After that I took my dress to the dry-cleaner`s and promised myself to wear the full uniform all my life.

Сообщение отредактировал(а) Роуз - 5.12.2007 - 22:45

I have been working only for two months and I have understood that a white sweater and a pair of black trousers are the best clothes in the world. It is so easy to wash white things and it is so comfotable to wear trousers. Of course they can't be compared with jeans, but I thought it would be worse. Anyway, people's attitude towards you does really change!

Wearing uniform makes people looking one like other. May it as nesessaru for some kinds of jobs, connetced with medicine, but for people who work in the office it is not useful, i think. People spend most of their time at work and and they really can loose theit individuality if they wear uniform.

amelie

I'd rather say "resemble one another".

I'd rather say "Maybe it is necessary".

It's a misprint. There should be written "connected"

"I" is always capitalized in the English language.

Not "loose" - "lose". Lexical meanings of these words are different.

Uniform is a kind of instrument. It is a symbol of order and law. Wearing uniform means that you know the rules of the game.

I hate all kinds of uniform. I can accept the rules of the game without wearing uniform. And I can break the rules in spite of wearing this one.