Pink hair gets man suspended from work

[Jacks]

I wonder how many people supporting this guy actually own or operate a company?

There is a clear rule, the guy broke the rule, company gave him a compromise, guy thumbed his nose at them, they suspended him, he quit, case closed. Just because people think he has some low level peon job that is below them doesn't mean he can do, act or dress anyway he damn well pleases. Some people have manual labor jobs and are proud of their work.

Sleep Country does 1000x times more for charity every year than this joker does.

I'm much more likely to buy a bed from sleep country now, at least I know they have standards that they adhere to.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by stacey

Well in that case she (Chistine M.) would still be the President and able to make any policy she sees fit.

Never said otherwise. Funny thing is all these policies that are supposedly set in stone and employees are told to comply. Suddenly there's a notice saying we are going to have Casual Friday's or lets all dress up for Stampede. Guess it's not set in stone as the owner might have you believe

Maybe this "mattress artist" should open his own shop where he's free to wear whatever his heart desires.

Talk about going to the extreme. He simply stood up for what he believes and now he should open his own shop? Alrighty then!

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Dion

Never said otherwise. Funny thing is all these policies that are supposedly set in stone and employees are told to comply. Suddenly there's a notice saying we are going to have Casual Friday's or lets all dress up for Stampede. Guess it's not set in stone as the owner might have you believe



Talk about going to the extreme. He simply stood up for what he believes and now he should open his own shop? Alrighty then!

If he simply stood up for what he believes in, fine. Walking off the job because you don't want to comply to a very simple request that would not have altered his purpose dying his hair shows his motivation. He used this event to grandstand and make his former employer look bad.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by moon

There is nothing wrong with knowingly and purposefully breaking company rules?

Policies are never set in stone and are often broken.odd how it always favours the owners and management.

The fact that he did it a second year in a row after they told him of the rule and made concessions to help him out sure seems like he is doing it to be a dickwad. Especially when there are so many more ways that he could raise cancer awareness and be within the company rules.

Asking him to wear a hat is not a concession. Maybe if management was n't so much of a dickwad they could understand that a couple of days of pink hair is not the end of the world. Compassion and a little understanding is a forgien language when it comes to hard liners. Thankfully I never had hard liners for managers.

They wouldn't be able to see it as a focal point during the time he is working for the company but people would still see when he is not working.

Company wins - employee loses. Let's forget about working to find a solution. Wear that hat or you will be suspended and later fired. You are dismissed employee!

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

If he simply stood up for what he believes in, fine. Walking off the job because you don't want to comply to a very simple request that would not have altered his purpose dying his hair shows his motivation. He used this event to grandstand and make his former employer look bad.

We don't know the reasons behind why he left, other than he found a new job. For all we know he had been looking for a long time and it was pure coinicidence that the one he found came up.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Dion

We don't know the reasons behind why he left, other than he found a new job. For all we know he had been looking for a long time and it was pure coinicidence that the one he found came up.

If that is the case, why did he wait until he dyed his hair knowing he would be asked to wear a hat? Sorry, but either way he used this to get back at his employer. Maybe they are a ####ty employer, but it's a cheap way of doing it

[Captain_Obvious]

Originally Posted by Dion

One of my points was that they could have gone to the media with a story of what an emplyee is doing.

"Hello is this the Calgary Sun? We have an employee who died his hair pink to support cancer awareness... and we're allowing it. Care to do a story on this?"

I get that you like to have emotional responses to a lot of threads on here, but that is a terrible point.

There is no outlet that's going to do a story on an employee deciding to dye his hair and the employer happily allowing it.

Can you ever make a point without the dramatics?

[GGG]

The more I think about it the more I disagree with the statement "Its for a good cause" It wasn't for a good cause. Awareness is not a good cause. Raising real dollars -> good cause but dying your hair pink without doing anything else does nothing for the fight against cancer.

If he does or doesn't dye his hair pink absolutely nothing changes in terms of societies awareness of Cancer or in the funding of Cancer treatment. There is NO benefit to him dying his hair pink.

He did not do it 'For a good cause"

[Senator Clay Davis]

Wow this thread has had a lot more legs than I would have imagined. To me this is pretty simple. Sleep Country has a rule, he chose to broke it and got suspended. I got no problem with that. But I also have no problem with him running to the paper. Freedom is freedom after all. Sleep Country dicked this up because they must have known an employee who has shown beligerence before could, and probably will, go cry to the local daily. They should have done a better job realizing where this would go and try to find a compromise to avoid this. I mean some credit for holding the line and staying true, but as a business person this was not a wise move.

The argument that giving in to him would set a bad precedent is true, but have all the negative headlines and potential lost sales from people pissed off over this worth it? I mean we aren't talking about this is they let it slide, and now they can't get this to go away fast enough, I'd argue this at best for Sleep Country is a neutral thing and at worst could cost them business. I agree the guy is being a bit of a moron after the fact, but again he's free to do so.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Wow this thread has had a lot more legs than I would have imagined. To me this is pretty simple. Sleep Country has a rule, he chose to broke it and got suspended. I got no problem with that. But I also have no problem with him running to the paper. Freedom is freedom after all. Sleep Country dicked this up because they must have known an employee who has shown beligerence before could, and probably will, go cry to the local daily. They should have done a better job realizing where this would go and try to find a compromise to avoid this. I mean some credit for holding the line and staying true, but as a business person this was not a wise move.

The argument that giving in to him would set a bad precedent is true, but have all the negative headlines and potential lost sales from people pissed off over this worth it? I mean we aren't talking about this is they let it slide, and now they can't get this to go away fast enough, I'd argue this at best for Sleep Country is a neutral thing and at worst could cost them business. I agree the guy is being a bit of a moron after the fact, but again he's free to do so.

We're basically going in circles here now, but I think it's a sad state of things when an employer needs to step back from every minor dispute with an employee and ask "how might this play out in the media?" before acting.

What's next? A college student misses 3 shifts in a row because they were out partying, but they run to the media when they are reprimanded because the friend they were partying with has cancer?

Honestly I do get where your coming from, I just don't agree with it.

[CaptainCrunch]

This just smacks as the same kind of thing as that occupyer who didn't show up for work because he was too busy occupying, and then wrote a fake letter of termination stating that he was fired for being a member of the occupy group and went crying to the press.

If you can't live by the rules of the organization that your working for, and you decide instead to ambush them in defiance, maybe instead of crying to the paper, show some maturity and some class and just move on.

I was talking to my girlfriend about this kid and him dying his hair pink for cancer, and her simple statement was, is that all he did? As in, its a pretty uninspiring way to raise awareness.

She thought it was the ultimate example of slacktivision.

[Senator Clay Davis]

It does suck that a business has to be concerned with these types of things, even more so now with social media. Stories like these can spread like wildfire and one piece of misinformation or false information can become established as "fact" in no time. More than ever businesses have to be cognisant of their brand image, and how little it takes to hurt a company. I mean I think most of us agree Sleep Country didn't do anything remotely wrong here, but they may still suffer because of it. As the world gets smaller, the margin for error does too.

[You Need a Thneed]

I'll echo others here and say that this guy was doing the whole thing for publicity. He had another job lined up, already tried the same thing before, so he knew the policy. And then he goes to the press with the story? I think he just wanted to dye his hair pink, and probably was unhappy with his job. The company is entitled to have rules, and to enforce them. Personally, I think the rule is stupid, but that's really besides the point here.

With apologies to MLK:

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their hair but by the content of their character.

I fail to see how not allowing certain hair colours is much different than not allowing different skin colours.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Captain_Obvious

"Hello is this the Calgary Sun? We have an employee who died his hair pink to support cancer awareness... and we're allowing it. Care to do a story on this?"

I get that you like to have emotional responses to a lot of threads on here, but that is a terrible point.

There is no outlet that's going to do a story on an employee deciding to dye his hair and the employer happily allowing it.

Can you ever make a point without the dramatics?

Speaking of dramatics... You may want to look at your own posts

[Captain_Obvious]

Originally Posted by Dion

Speaking of dramatics... You may want to look at your own posts

That's my point... the fact you see drama or intrigue in something that would be of no interest to any news outlet.

It's fine to be upset by something (as you are yet again in this thread). Just don't use poor reasoning and defeated logic to do it.

[ken0042]

I added a poll. Just two options; keep it simple.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Dion

Speaking of dramatics... You may want to look at your own posts

The ironing is delicious.

Originally Posted by Dion

Company wins - employee loses. Let's forget about working to find a solution. Wear that hat or you will be suspended and later fired. You are dismissed employee!

Dramatics AND misrepresentation to prove your point.


SC: "Please wear the hat."
D: "No, I'm leaving."
SC: "Well, if you're just up and leaving during your shift, we're going to have to suspend you."
D: "No, you're suspending me because of my hair."

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by Crazy Bacon Legs

"Tons of people on both sides of my family have died from all types of cancer."

Not only has this poor fellow had so many relatives die from cancer that he has measure them by approximate weight instead of concrete numbers, but each one of them died from all types of cancer. That's horrible.

This poor guy really lost the genetic lottery. I am sure he dreads the day when he too comes down with every form of cancer. I am not sure having pink hair will even really help at all.

This reply is too good to get buried. It may be my favorite remark of all time on CP.

[kermitology]

This is ridiculous to me. I'm on the guys side simply because I don't think that anyone is really going to be afraid or put off by a guy with pink hair. Most people would ask a question about the hair, get the cancer answer and say: "Oh, good for you" and probably think slightly higher of Sleep Country as a result.

If he was showing up in pink panties and a pink bra as well, sure, that's an issue, but most delivery guys are not the model for professional representation of a company, so why generate the possibility of bad press?

[Street Pharmacist]

While the rule may be arbitrary, he was given fair option to wear a hat. Instead he "makes a stand" and walls off the job and goes top the press.