Human Resource Blog

Grooming Issues with Plumbers

We have one young man who has had 3 distinct haircuts in the last 6 months. First it was hippie long & shaggy, then shaved GI style and now a mohawk. He is the brunt of jokes on the jobsite (which he does not mind) and his fellow employees are tired of hearing them from the other contractors. He is a plumber so dress code is really lax, but the hair thing is causing problems and projecting a company image we do not like. Can we make adress code to limit hairstyles? We thought this might be too discriminatory. 

Yes, you can implement a dress code and as long as you enforce it fairly and consistently, it is not discriminatory.

If you feel that this young man is not projecting the company image that you like, that is a valid concern. Requiring him to change his hairstyle because other contractors make fun of it is probably not a valid concern. (Our guess is that they will continue to make fun of him for some other reason.) And, we have to wonder…was his haircut *normal* when you hired him? Or were you hoping it would get better?

Traditionally, one of the perks of working construction has been the very lax dress and grooming code. People with hair like Willie Nelson and tatoos like Mike Tyson could work in construction, when they were excluded from other jobs. However, there is no law that this must be so. And perhaps you are not in a traditional construction setting.

You can establish a comprehensive dress and grooming code for all employees. Our suggestion is that you draft a dress code that covers all the bases while you are at it, including piercings, tatoos, jewelry, clothes, etc. etc. Many, perhaps most employers prohibit *extreme hairstyles.* In this case, an extreme hairstyle is whatever you say it is (as long as you are fair and consistent.) Mohawks would definitely qualify. Issue a written memo a week or two in advance to inform everyone of the new dress and grooming code.

You may have to follow up by taking this young man — or anyone else who violates the dress code — aside for a private conversation. Be tactful, but explain that his hair is a violation of the dress code. If he is very young, it may never have occurred to him that this is a valid job performance issue.

It is legal to have different dress and grooming codes for men and women in the workplace. The reality is that men and women dress differently in our culture, and the courts realize this. So you can prohibit men from having shoulder-length hair, but permit it for a female plumber, should you have one on the payroll.

If you issued a dress code and only required workers of one race, color, religion, or ethnic group to follow it, that would be illegal discrimination. But it is perfectly legal to discriminate between employees with mohawks, and employees without them.