Recently, one of the PMs in our office that raised an interesting question: Should visible tattoos be allowed in a professional workplace?
Back in the old days of engineering, you were expected to wear black pants, a white shirt, a tie, dress shoes, pocket protector, and the thick glasses were optional. Smoking was permitted and women weren’t.
Obviously, we’ve come a long way since the preferred dress in my office was khakis and a shirt with a collar (this goes for the women too). And to my knowledge no one has ever said a word about my coworker’s visible tattoos ( both of his hands, wrists and forearms are heavily inked). Should they?
I honestly don’t know. We’ve come a long way in redefining what is appropriate for the office. These days, you call your boss by his first name, and you’re probably friends on Facebook.
Some would say it’s a person’s right to dress however he sees fit if he is capable of doing the work. But where does professionalism come into play?
No one ever wore white dress shirts, ties, and slacks because they enjoyed it or they felt it expressed who they really were. They did it because they were professionals and were expected to dress like it. Are we not as professional as our fore-engineers? How should we go about showing our professionalism? Are dress codes inside the office a fading relic of the past?
