long hair on men at work

Long hair on men has never been an acceptable form of appearance. The posts here have proven that.

As a hiring manager, I have never preferred long hair on men. It is an appearance of unkemptness, and the long-haire d men that currently work for my organization have distinct performance issues. They do not dress in a professional manner, and they are noticably and notably less punctual than their shorter haired or female counterparts. The long haired men have been far less punctual, have also spent more time procrastinating (one computer programmer that specified on his resume that he was "adaptable to new technology and changing software environments" took 3 hours [instead of 5 minutes] trying to get his palm pilot to work the way he wanted it.

So, do I directly discriminate against long-haired males?
No.

Have I seen a performance difference in long-haired males
vs. short-haired males?
Yes. Historically, short-haired males have been more
professional and better performers.

Do I think that all long-haired males are slackers?
No.
However, all of the long-haired males in my organization have been less professional in clearly demonstrable ways than short-haired males.

Why doesn't hair length apply to women?
Women have proven that their hair length have nothing to do
with their work ethic or professionalism.

Will I ever hire a man with longer hair?
Yes, if he shows the same commitment to professionalism that
either short-haired men or women show.
That includes:
overall professional dress and attitude
Proper skills
Defined education
Punctuality
Low absenteeism
Strong, proper, and prudent lifestyle and personal decisions
Excellent work ethic
Strong references
Desire for excellence

I have the same requirements that other employers have

you either make them or you don't

-fc

It is wrong that long hair is not an acceptable form of appearance for everyone. Look around the Unix, Linux, Internet, multimedia world. There exist a lot of freaks with long or even very long hair, and they are really good performers. A friend told me that on the CEBIT (an important computer mess) Americans were laughing about the German computer specialists why they all look like bankers. I myself have seen men in the software development area with very long hairs. I think that individuals do what they want.

You say that short-haired males have been more professional and better performers. I would like to know what is the quantitative relation between long and short haired males in your organization?
And what kind of work has to be done, what they earn for their work. If it is a nice work or rather boring. And something about the skills which will be required. If I can not make a social study about your theses I can not say if it is in general true or not.

If I work as a programmer for someone, I think I earn primarily money for the work I do there, not for presenting me in a fashion like manner. In some environments this attitude goes wrong, but today I have no problems to change to an other one.

wolfgang

I read your post about five times because I couldn't believe what I read.
That is so stupid and is as stupid as people who would say that women that paint their nail or have longer nails work better than woman who don't paint their nail and have short nail.
Man if you were here in person i would throw a quarter and say phone someone that cares about this stupidity.
Like the brain cells or the ambitions is attached to the lenght of the hair. One of the history books for sure. lol

Perseption is all, they say. Unfortunately that is true.
The man who came to work at my bank with long hair
was not a poor worker when his hair was long, nor is
he a better worker now his hair is cut. However, I must
say that, coming as I do from an enviroment where it is
extremely rare to see a man with long hair and, as a
result, I am not used to seeing men with long hair,
everytime I saw him before his hair was cut, every time I
spoke to him, all I saw was 'the hair' not the man. It
was like his hair was slapping me in the face, that his
hair was a barrier between him and me. And I am sure
this was the case with most customers. Whereas,
when I see a female co-worker, or talk to one, with long
hair, I do not notice their hair as I am used to seeing
women with long hair. I am sure the same is true with
customers when they speak to me. Therefore, the
more I think about it, however much I disagree with it, I
can understand why this man I work with was made to
cut his hair and I, as a woman, was not. I think we are
all victims of society and its perseptions. It would be
nice if society could change.

Hello fastcache,

You said, "Long hair on men has never been an acceptable form of appearance. The posts here have proven that."

In centuries and societies past, long hair on men has at times been THE "acceptable" form of hairstyle appearance. Even if you intended "has never been" as "is not presently," your statement is indicative of a subjective societal bias applied to excessive measure. To say that "theft has never been an acceptable form of behavior" has merit because there is a victim who is deprived of their posession, but I am unable to identify a victim who is wronged when a man chooses to wear his hair long.

Additionally, I fail to see a substantive body of evidence contained within the posts related to this subject (two women saying that they think it looks "awful?") to quantify proof of your hypothesis. I hope for the sake of the organization which employs you that you are not responsible for hiring technical or scientific personnel.


You also said, "As a hiring manager, I have never preferred long hair on men. It is an appearance of unkemptness..."

Why is this? I sense that you apply a gender-based double-standard. If a long-haired man keeps his hair (and himself) clean and neat, why would you consider this man to be unkempt?


You also said, "... the long-haired men that currently work for my organization have distinct performance issues. They do not dress in a professional manner, and they are noticably (sic) and notably less punctual than their shorter haired or female counterparts. The long haired men have been far less punctual, have also spent more time procrastinating (one computer programmer that specified on his resume that he was "adaptable to new technology and changing software environments" took 3 hours [instead of 5 minutes] trying to get his palm pilot to work the way he wanted it."

Dress, punctuality, and job-related aptitude and performance are issues related to the hiring and management of the people in question. It sounds as though somebody else here (H.R. or management), hasn't done and/or isn't doing their job particularly well, either.

With regards to your comments about thinking that long
hair on men looks awful. Yes, I admit, I do think that
long hair on men looks awful. However, as I have said,
I am sure that is because of society's indoctrination of
me. Having said that, I would never tell a man to cut his
hair short. After all, it would be hypercritical of me to
ask a man to cut off his long hair when I have long hair
myself and would never cut it even if I were offered a
King's ransom!