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Two Cultures?
Remember CP Snow's famous book, Two Cultures, which asked if we were seeing a division between the scientifically literate and the, well, literately literate? And of course, we've all heard the Red State/Blue State riff. But this recent question posed to slashdot highlighted for me that we don't have two, but many splinter cultures.
Body Modifications Still Hinder IT Professionals?I love the simple sincerity of the question, and can imagine just how many possible answers there are, depending on where you live.
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Comments: 5
Roger [13 June 2005 10:24 AM]
It certainly matters where you live. In most
of coastal California (read: LA and SF bay areas)
you can dress how you like at many many companies.
Some execptions are still uptight places like IBM
and financial institutions.
I've had many colleagues with piercings, tattoos,
etc while living and working in CA. Then again,
I have friends in Utah, one of the most doggedly
conservative states in the Union, who are tattoed
and pierced, and who work in a variety of businesses in various IT and non-IT positions.
I think it really matters on the business.
Roger
Mike Perry [13 June 2005 01:19 PM]
When I see someone with extensive and hard-to-hide tatooing, I can't help but recall the bellbottoms and tie-dyed teeshirts that were the rage when I was in college.
Fashion in clothes is no big deal. You can always toss them out and buy something new. But etched-on-your-skin fashion is another matter. I pity those who'll have to spend the rest of their lives trying to cover up a fad they can't easily get rid of.
And yes, it does say something about someone's planning and management skills that they haven't anticipated this problem. Tatooing is like writing Windows 95 only software. There's no future in it, so why bother?
Alex Payne [13 June 2005 01:45 PM]
Mike Perry said earlier, "There's no future in [tattoos], so why bother?" What a regretfully narrow attitude.
Tattoos, like any other issue of outward appearance, are a useful benchmark by which to gauge someone. In some cases they may indeed betray a poor spur-of-the-moment decision (like the many sorority girls cursed with a cutesy cartoon character on their calf after a night of partying). In other cases, however, well-concieved and beautifully rendered tattoos can convey an individual's confidence, interests, and sense of personal worth. They may reflect people, places, or events in their lives that they found meaningful, or they may reflect future goals or personal ethics.
Keeping an open mind and "reading" tattoos may help you find employees who are far more self-aware and dedicated than an employee willing to toss out their wardrobe and remake themselves for something as fleeting as a job.
I find Mr. Perry's assertion that "there's no future in it" personally ironic: I've had the kanji for "future" tattooed on my left arm since my 18th birthday, and it's a daily reminder of my values and societal role as a technologist. I've not had an employer complain yet about that tattoo nor any other of the permanent and temporary body modifications I've made, and I promptly would walk away from any employer that did. Such dinosaurs don't belong in the business of making the future.
adamsj [15 June 2005 07:56 AM]
Piercings? Tattoos? I'm still waiting to see an IT management staff not made up of white and Asian men.
Kyle [15 June 2005 03:37 PM]
I work for a phone company in a 'classic red state', and body modifications are extremely uncommon -- though I don't believe that they're verboten. Then again, like adamsj says above, that likely has more to do with the demographics of both staff and management. But that doesn't make them a good idea. Actually, it's not much different than the overall concept of dress codes: Be self-expressive but try to look professional. Earrings can still be decorous, and I suspect that most other piercings (particularly the far-out ones) wouldn't show in a work environment anyway. Lots of piercings in the facial area, though, only serve to distract people. Would you rather have the person with whom you're speaking thinking about the six rings in your eyebrow or about the substance of the business? Tattoos are similar. There's lots of ex-military guys with tattoos, many of which never show, or if they do, aren't thought about too much. But if you have so many that they become the focus rather than the quality of your work, is that really beneficial to you? Maybe it *is* self-expressive, but you might think about just what it is you're really expressing.