This was Wednesday last week. Today is Saturday. 10 days later, it has faded somewhat (it's more duller and blends better into the black in dark lighting, but shines something crazy in extremely light places (like outside)). I dyed my hair when I was on holidays from work.
Tuesday, I go back to work. Lorraine, one of the duty managers, notices my hair (by staring at me for 10 seconds in disbelief before commenting, "that's a nice colour"). Work goes fine. Thursday I go into work and Duty phones for me straight away. I march over to the store (I work in a Tesco Petrol Station), and the first thing out of Fran's (another Duty Manager) mouth is, "The blue has to go".
We sit there for 10 minutes, whilst I argue idly asking why I have to dye my hair. Her reply is: "It's not of a natural hair colour." My immediate reply, of course, is "Well, I had red hair for 6 months and not one question was raised regarding that, and last time I checked, other than ginger people who sprout bright orange from their skulls, red isn't a natural colour." Fran brushed this comment aside, saying that red was more commonplace nowadays and more accepted than the blue I dyed mine. However it does not detract from the point that she made: The hair is not a natural hair colour.
So I ask her to tell me where Tesco's policy is on Dress Code, and how you should look when at work to clear this up. She goes off for 10 minutes, returns unable to find the book which 'every member of staff is given when they start employment with Tesco'. I laugh a smirky laugh, and tell her that unless she backs up her claims, I'm going to take the matter further with the Union, on charges of sexual discrimination (which, to be honest is a bit farfetched, but I did name off 6 girls who work in the store who have coloured hair (be it all over or part dyed (colours include Maroon, Bright Red and Purple) and are allowed to have it) unless she can provide me with written confirmation about what she is talking about.
She tells me that unless my hair is changed by my next working shift (today), then I would be sent home unpaid.
Today, I walked in with my head held high, found Fran and asked to speak to her. We went to a room. She says, "I see you've not changed you hair", and I said "No, because you've not shown me your evidence". We argued some more for 10 minutes before things got really irate, until she asked me finally "are you going to change it", and I said "No, because it's a waste of my money to get rid of a look I wanted and furthermore, you are singling me out amongst the plethora of staff who have their hair 'unnatural colours'", which I then pointed out that bleached blonde hair (which she has), isn't a natural colour. She storms off.
She comes back 10 minutes later, after phoning over the garage (my department), and tells me that she should suspend me because I'm refusing to follow the company's dress code, but won't because of 1 person in particular who I brought to her attention, and none of the duty managers are sure of her hair colour... The person who's name I brought up was Lizz, my girlfriend. They aren't suspending me because they aren't sure if my claims that my girlfriends' hair is "bright red". Ignoring 5 other people I mentioned who were working that very day, she picked the one person who wasn't in work at that moment in time on a whim to get her out of trouble. Of course, my mind starts racing thinking that because they disapprove of whatever we have together, a working relationship on the same department (which, we don't even work TOGETHER), is reason enough to seperate us.
So after 45 minutes of 'talking' to Fran, she tells me that instead of my next contracted working shift, I have 10 days to change my hair colour, at which point the entire argument is moot because in 10 days time, the colour would have faded even more, and the blonde which it will fade to will start coming through, and blonde and black are considered "Natural hair colours". It's complete bullshit.
But not only that, the chain of command she's gone through it completely wrong. For one, Lorraine (who is a complete bitch), should have gone to my manager instead of another, and got my manager to deal with the situation. However, my manager is off ill, so Fran did it. This is how it's been for the last 2 months, because Natalie (my manager) is off, everyone over the store has ignored the chain of command, and whenever 1 person has something to say about staffing over the garage, it comes from them all instead of us answering to 1 person. And I know, and they know for a fact that Natalie would do absolutely NOTHING about my hair, because she'd view it as a stupid arguement and would side with me.
So now I'm in the process of going through Union and writing letters to the higher people above my people, asking for them to be more precise about the code of dress regarding hair styles. Fran even when to a point where she claimed my hair was "not of a business-like manner", and actually motioned with her hands that my hair was all kinds of fucked up (scruffy, morning hair style with no shape or form), which further pissed me off.
So... Opinions, comments, etc..? What kind of "dress code" does your working place have? Answers on postcards people, I wanna know what the working world is like...
Rebel without a cause just doesn't pay that well.
