A few years ago, Claire Shepherd applied for a job that she considered dream-worthy. It was with a shopping logistics company called Dee Set, and the role was as a retail merchandiser, which entailed helping stores plan what products to buy and how to display them.
The young woman from Swansea, Wales was excited for the opportunity to land a great job and wound up nailing her telephone interview.
The interviewers were extremely impressed with her knowledge and experience and ended up offering Claire the job before the call was over!
Dee Set followed up the phone call with an email outlining their standards.
Which included a tattoo policy. According to the email, all tattoos had to be covered in order to avoid offending anyone.
Uh oh.
This policy disappointed Claire because she has a number of tattoos, including one that extends from her fingers to her forearm.
Claire still had an optimistic outlook.
Hoping that component of the email was simply outdated, Claire contacted Dee Set and inquired about its current policy.
Their response was not what she was hoping for.
“I was shocked when they replied and said they would no longer be employing me as I would not be able to cover my tattoos.”
Claire had never faced this before.
“I have six years previous experience in managerial roles and my tattoos have never been an issue.”
Of course, different businesses have different rules, but if she’s worked similar jobs without issue, her confusion was understandable.
And Dee Set didn’t really explain how her ink would cause offense. It didn’t feature any sort of adult images or foul language; it’s just intricate design work.
Claire took action.
Upset with their decision, Claire took her frustrations to Facebook and posted a message about what had happened.
She made some compelling points.
“They clearly thought I had something to offer and would be the right person for the job as they had already offered me the position.”
After seeing the post, Dee Set offered Claire the job a second time.
After her post and message about discrimination against those with tattoos went viral, Claire heard back from the company about offering her the position again.
They said they had seen her tattoo and it was appropriate.
Claire wasn’t entirely convinced that that was the company’s reasoning. “They saw my tattoo and saw it was not offensive. But I feel if I hadn’t gone viral, they wouldn’t have offered me the job back.”
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It was too late for Dee Set.
And while she was glad the company recognized their mistake and offered to correct it, Claire turned down the second job offer for a role with a different company.
However, Claire does give Dee Set credit for coming around.
“I’m glad they saw their mistake and corrected it though, that’s a step forward,” she said.
Claire is glad that her message was seen by so many.
She hopes her experience will shine a light on workplace discrimination and that it will change the the public’s perspective about the tattoo community.
She also feels that perhaps the government might see an opportunity here to encourage employers.
“The government want people employed,” she said. “Maybe they should not allow companies to have outdated policies then.”
Claire feels that having tattoos should be a nonissue when it comes to the workplace.
“In my opinion, tattoos do not affect your performance or ability to do a job and do not pose a health and safety risk or cause any harm. It is literally just some color or a picture on your skin.”
h/t: Daily Mail , Metro
