Update on Facial Hair in the Workplace
Three years ago, I wrote a post on facial hair in the workplace. It was in reaction to a newspaper article I read that said that although “sporting facial hair was traditionally a good way to get rejected at interviews, snubbed for promotions and even fired,” city workplaces were becoming tolerant.
For reasons I do not understand, it was one of my most-read blog posts. Though I never profess to know what content people are looking for from the likes of me, I am pretty sure it is not my input on facial hair in the workplace.
Anyway, when I came across a recent piece in the Workstation column of the New York Times, entitled, “Whiskers Unlimited? Not on Wall Street,” I decided an update was in order.
The article begins: “Beards are very much in fashion now. Here in Manhattan, you can spot them just about everywhere, from well-trimmed, barely-there goatees to lush, furry profusions of hirsuteness. In certain parts of Brooklyn, it’s almost hard to find a man who doesn’t have a beard, especially now that the weather is colder.”
But, the article points out, there are a few exceptions. Those are in the world of finance (and politics). In fact, author Phyllis Korkki actually stood outside Goldman Sachs headquarters one day, looking for someone with a beard. The closest she saw was a 5-o’clock shadow on several men!
However, in most fields – certainly direct & digital marketing – beards have a “creative, hipsterish connotation,” and are a fashion statement.
That should do it on the subject of facial hair in the workplace!
In Articles