I am the original poster.

The entire incident screamed "unprofessionalism." I manage a historic site,
and require anyone who interacts with our visitors (customers) to dress
neatly and professionally. We do not insist on a uniform, but rely on our
employees, interns and volunteers to be mature enough to choose their own
clothing. (Guidelines spell out what is in appropriate - underwear showing,
distracting clothing or accessories, bare midriffs or cleavage, etc.)
I also insist on professional behavior - no gum smacking, no indifference to
our visitors.

I appreciate the angst over my posting but I stand by it. I, too, dressed in
the outrageous styles during my teen years, but only on my time. I held a
part-time job throughout high school and college, and dressed appropriately
for those businesses during working hours. 

Remember, I am the customer in this story. The work was botched, the service
atrocious. My perception (as a customer) is the store's reality. You don't
have to agree with my views, or even respect them for that matter. However,
a business owner will pay attention to them because I choose where to spend
my money. In this case, I took not only the one graphics job, but all future
work away from that business. The two customers behind me also took their
business away. 

I like the analogy of restaurants. There are all kinds of restaurants, and
people choose among them based on many factors other than food quality.
Service, décor, atmosphere, clientele, etc. are also criteria by which
people choose restaurants. In the same way, I have several options for
printing/graphics services: Kinko's with the aforementioned employee,
Staples, a locally owned full service printer, or even Walmart, etc. Now
obviously I can eliminate some of the businesses based on the services they
can provide. Another business is difficult to use because of the hassle in
dealing with them. So, I'm left with a locally owned print shop where I'm
greeted by name by folks who act and dress professionally, and the service
is impeccable but not usually very fast.

Oh yes, I also deal with some online printers for rack cards, etc. - and
I'll bet they employ folks who dress VERY casually - perhaps
unprofessionally. They may wear all black or every nothing at all. But I
don't have to look at them! But...the photo of their staff on the website is
of a smartly uniformed staff in khakis and polo shirts. I wonder why? :-)

As the country song says, "That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Now folks, we've beaten this dead horse enough. Let's move on!

Becky Fitzgerald

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Emily Holmes
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 11:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: comment on today's youth - ot

What frustrated me the most about the orginal kinkos
post, and responses like this one, is the implication
that the employee's service and her appearance are
somehow related. While this may not have been stated
directly, it was clear to me that the customer who had
to endure the poor service certainly saw a connection
or she would not have highlighted the employee's
"goth" look so prominently in her account of the
event. 

I wonder how this experience would have been recounted
had the employee looked like me, an average
20-something with brown hair in a pony-tail, glasses,
business casual clothes and no tatoos or piercings of
any kind?  My point is that how this young woman
looked has no bearing on the kind of service she
provides - she could choose to dress as she does and
provide exceptional service or she could look like I
do and provide lousy service. 

Personally I find it ironic that after months of
reading Museum-L emails - this is the one I respond to
first. I am possibly the least-likely person I know to
get a tatoo or another piercing since I let me earring
holes grow in in 7th grade - yet this thread has
bothered me. As a former museum interpreter and
current museum studies graduate student I fully
endorse dress codes and the concept that certain
levels of dress are approriate at some occasions and
not others. I do not however endorse associating
people's personal style with their negative behavior.
Perhaps my resitance to this is a characteristic of my
age-group and thus an indicator of how our society is
moving towards more acceptance of all kinds. I hope
so. 

~Emily Holmes
Cooperstown Graduate Program Class of 2007

--- Pamela Silvestri <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>  
>  
> The impression I received from the original Kinko's
> Goth employee post was  
> that poor service and a disrespectful manner were
> attributed to a poor work  
> ethic and habits in general. The person's appearance
> was of little  consequence, 
> but used to relate to an attitude that was
> discourteous  along with the less 
> than adequate service. Quite the adverse of what is
> expected  from someone in 
> customer service.
>  
> Low pay is not a justification for poor service. A
> low wage worker who is  
> not working at 100% most times is a person who has a
> poor work ethic. We all  
> have bad days and times when we're not as
> productive, etc., as usual  but the 
> Kinko's employee exhibited several that can't be
> attributed to  having just a 
> bad day. The things she was doing were more 
> indicative of a pattern of 
> behaviors and attitudes, etc.
>  
> I also don't believe it is fair to compare the
> judgement of one's  adornments 
> and dress with that of someone's skin color in the
> very  least.  No person is 
> born with piercings and tattoos. 
>  
> I for one, associate piercings and tattoos with
> pain. That's what I  
> experience when I see these. I did not even get my
> ears pierced until I was 27  
> (didn't even own a pair of high heels until I was
> 20). Personally, I'm a big fan  of 
> pain avoidance. But believe it or not, I did go Goth
> in  1981. Goths have 
> been around for quite some time and alternative 
> appearances in general and 
> issues related to them are hardly anything new. If 
> you choose to change your 
> natural appearance, you shouldn't expect others to
> be  forced to like how you look, 
> expect it to be pleasing to them, not distracting 
> and along with 
> that....some people are naturally not going to be so
> accepting  and non-judgmental.
>  
> We do have every 'right' to judge people because it
> is innate. Our initial  
> perceptions are based on our senses and knowledge
> base after which in time  we 
> can learn to substantiate this, or change it. It was
> obvious in the original  
> post that it was not the employees' manner of dress
> alone or at all even that  
> accounted for the poor service. It was the attitude,
> the gum chewing, the  
> indifference, lack of respect -the poor quality of
> customer service in  general.
>  
> I was goth for only a day back in 1981 for a show I
> was in. As with all  
> shows I performed in - I dedicated a day to spend
> out in public 'in character'.  
> For my goth character, I used public transportation
> and visited two  pubs in he 
> city. These puns were not places where punk/goth
> people  would frequent. At 
> the 1st place, I acted differently according to the
> fact that  I looked 
> different. I didn't make any new friends there. At
> the 2nd pub (just  two doors down) 
> I, still in costume, acted like myself. I had more
> people being  friendly 
> towards me there.
>  
> When I look at the goth photo of myself...my hair
> with one side longer than  
> the other, heavy make-up, black lip liner and a
> chainlink fence around my neck 
>  (I'm exaggerating, of course it was just a bold,
> gold chain) I can't 
> imagine, as  much as I liked it, how I may have kept
> up that appearance to the 
> present  day.
>  
> I can only imagine what it would have been like to
> have taken the time and  
> expense with the make-up and hair for all those
> years. Especially seeing that 
> my  present day job is outdoorsy...and I love the
> fact that I don't have to 
> wear  make-up and fuss with my hair. When I look at
> that photo of me, I can't 
> picture  myself looking like that and doing what I'm
> doing today. 
>  
> BTW the 1st tattoo I ever saw on a woman was in the
> late 70's...a woman in  
> her 60's who had been a flapper -a red heart with an
> arrow through it on her  
> calf. I thought it was the coolest thing. I loved
> seeing tattoos on people 
> until  I learned of how they were done (ouch).
>  
> Since I mentioned Flappers...among themselves and
> for non-flappers alike,  
> certain attitudes and behaviors went along with
> being a flapper. If you didn't  
> drink, smoke, dance, etc., but dressed like a
> flapper...you weren't really  a 
> flapper. Women didn't just dress like a flapper and
> expect to not be  treated 
> as a flapper. 
>  
> Let's be real here. Changing one's appearance,
> looking  differently by 
> choice, etc., is likely to evoke a response (either
> positive or  negative). Some 
> people like negative attention too. And we know that
>  alternative appearance is 
> more apt to be related to alternative culture. If
> that  alternative culture has 
> some negative aspects associated with it -  of
> course people are going to 
> make judgements. If you choose to alter your 
> appearance to conform to a 
> particular culture, you are going to be associated 
> with it unless your behavior, 
> etc., shows/proves otherwise.
>  
> Pam
>  
>  
>  
> In a message dated 10/3/2006 1:07:13 P.M. Eastern
> Daylight Time,  
> [log in to unmask] writes:
> 
> Hello,
> I'm going to weigh in here, because the subject is
> near and  dear to my 
> heart, as a pierced person, and also as a younger
> person just  beginning 
> my career and hoping to stay pierced as I move
> through  it.
> 
> in regards to the quality of service of the Kinko's
> employee, the  first 
> thing that popped into my mind is, how much is this
> girl, or any  
> employee there, getting paid? Probably not that
> much. Also, chances  
> are, the girl who waited on you did not have
> anything to do with the  
> mistake in your order. My guess is someone who
> worked the night before  
> messed up and she was finishing the transaction.
> 
> Yes, we are  judged. Everyday. But that doesn't give
> us the right to 
> form opinions  about someone's character or quality
> because of the way 
> they look. In that  sense, judging a person by the
> way their hair is 
> cut, the piercings they  have, or what they wear, is
> akin, in a small 
> way, to judging a person by  the color of their
> skin. It is a judgment 
> and an assessment of them as a  human based on the
> way they look.
> 
> I agree that we, as professionals,  and usually as
> humans, are judged by 
> the way that we look, how we talk,  our grammar, all
> of that. But that 
> doesn't make it right and it doesn't  mean that we
> shouldn't struggle to 
> not judge people by the way they  look.
> 
> I think that this is a really grey area, and one
> that we could  argue 
> over and over. But what makes something appropriate?
> Just because  you 
> work in an office downtown, does that mean you
> should dress in a suit?  
> Convention says yes, but who is to say that
> convention is  right?
> 
> The thing I try to remember about those blessed
> people who work  in the 
> service industry, is that they work hard for,
> usually, less than  
> optimal pay.
> I try to remember that they might have had a hard
> day, or  just dealt 
> with a difficult customer. I'm not saying that you
> should 
=== message truncated ===


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