In the Blog
Raising money for charity? Better check with your employer first
One of our readers sent us this article about a woman in Owen Sound, Ontario who raised $2,700 for Cops for Cancer by shaving her head, only to be ordered to take unpaid leave from her waitressing job until it grew back.
Her employers had this to say:
“Our staff is expected to come dressed appropriately and we did not feel that this was appropriate…She could have done a multitude of different things to support her cause that wouldn’t have affected her work, but she chose to do it in a way that we told her was inappropriate for our business.”
They suggested she use her summer off to “spend time with her kids”. The suggestion being that she was doing them a terrible disservice by going to work in the first place.
What exactly is inappropriate about a waitress with a shaved head? Could it be that it’s - gasp - unfeminine? What’s the bet that if one of the mail waitstaff came to work with a shaved head, the owners wouldn’t bat an eyelid?
