Only dinosaurs think tattoos are not suitable for workplace

Long time ago, tattoos might have been the symbol of hard life, prisoners, sailors, prostitutes and exotic countries, but in todays modern society, one fifth of British adults have one.

Luckily for us “heavily tattooed modern folk”, tattoos are now becoming increasingly harmless across a variety of workplaces and situations.

Starbucks, for example, which used to be the leading business in the mainstream uptightness around the world, has recently (finally) given in and approved tattoos for their staff. In this world of boosting individualism, especially in a city like London, many employers now value our differences and ways of expressing it. Many even see it being good for their business concept that their individuals stand out.

Obviously we are not talking about offensive tattoos here, as those can indeed have an impact on how professional a customer or a future client sees a person. We are talking about little cute things like dolphins around an ankle.

(Did you notice how I used the tattoo of Samantha Cameron, wife of our current PM, as an example here?)

Employers and the perfect world!

In a perfect world all candidates for any position wouldn’t be judged by their appearance, with or without tattoos, but by their professional skills and merits of their work.

However, we do know by now that not judging a book by its cover has never really worked for the business world before, and is unlikely to work any time soon.

As long as “old dinosaurs", the white middle-aged male who ru(i)n the majority of businesses in London, get their way, tattoos will be covered under jackets and skirts, turning the business world into grey mass of emotionless achievers.

“I would never even want a job where my tattoo would be a problem,” said Annika, a Senior Consultant who has a big skull with roses in her left arm.

“It is so important to like the atmosphere at the office and the culture of the company, so I think that in a place where tattoos in general would be a problem, I would not feel comfortable anyway.”

Even though she proudly carries her skull anyway, all the comments about her tattoo have been positive on her workplace.

“If someone is doubtful about the affect of a tattoo in a workplace, then maybe they need to have another thought about having one in the first place. They are forever so you need to be sure in all that comes with it,” she said.

Inappropriate or not? 

When looking at the recent statistics, a strict no-tattoo-policy would remarkably cut down excellent candidates for any role so it seems like a no-brainer, but there are other kind of statistics too.

Forbes published a 2011 study by CareerBuilder which shows that 31% of surveyed employers ranked “having a visible tattoo” as the top personal attribute that would sidetrack them from promoting an employee, 76% of respondents felt tattoos and piercings hurt an applicant’s chances of being hired during a job interview and 42% felt visible tattoos were always inappropriate at work.

There has been no reliable statistics from the UK recently, but it has been argued that the amount of people with at least one tattoo was close to 20 million in 2013. What is certain though, is that people in all walks of life have them. We should not try to fit in the same template.

People should stop being afraid of the dinosaurs who fight for their dear lives in the business world. Their time is done and a confident, high achieving woman with a visible tattoo can drive them to extinct better than a meteor ever could.

101 for Women in Business

All the channels available today have, however, given the “internet national” generation a possibility to brand, sell and work themselves as a desirable employee purpose-built for their potential employer.

Never under-estimate how important social media is for getting noticed and being visible, but also how damaging it can be if not managed effectively. And remember, your LinkedIn profile might open you the door, but your personality needs to support your online brand.

How to start building your brand

Make a plan and spend a lot of time before your job search making sure you have a clear and specific goal on what you want to accomplish in your career or in the next few years. Think about who you really are, what you stand for, what your values are and what motivates you in life. What are your strong personality characteristics, your talents and strengths?

Make sure YOU know exactly who you are, so you will be able to sell yourself.

“New employers will be looking for authentic confidence, good personal presentation that is appropriate for the role you will be in and for their corporate brand,” said Lesley Everett, the creator and founder of Walking TALL which is a methodology for building original personal brands.

“They want to know about ‘you’ not just what you’ve achieved so far, and to ensure that your communication skills in all forms are of a high standard.“ 

We live in an even faster moving world, where we are forced to make decisions quickly, have limited attention spans and where trust and like-ability are at the fore-front of our sub-conscious minds when we chose to work with, promote, recruit and build relationships with individuals,” Everett said.

The part of social media

You must know by now that each post made on social media sites is a layer added to your personal brand. A certain carefulness is always good to keep in mind. Before posting, ask yourself: ’Would I care if my boss saw this?’

Also, those warnings your mother gave you are worth considering - whatever is added to the internet, could very well stay there even if deleted later.

The first steps in branding should always include taking a closer look on your existing accounts and ‘cleaning’ them up.

“I recently pointed out to a young guy, who has a lot of talent and drive, that his profile picture with his hand gesture as it was, and a certain comment in a post about the police should be changed immediately,” said Lesley Everett.

Her advice on social media use is: “You need a LinkedIn profile with a good, clear and professional head and shoulders photo and a strong summary statement. On Facebook make sure you have your settings so that when you are tagged in a photo you know about it to delete if necessary. 

“Twitter is great for building a presence if you have an area of interest or expertise, and great as a tool for research and following relevant people or companies. Always ask yourself before posting – is this in-line with my personal brand and how I want to be perceived in the professional world? 

“Just remember, that your personal brand is about being who you really are and being the best you can be. Just take time to define it, refine it and project it consistently in all you do,” she said.

Lisa Christensen

Women in business

Women in business can succeed if they remember one simple tip, according to Lisa Christen, the Founder and Managing Director of Christen Consulting. She said: “You have to take the action and control your own destiny. Don’t sit back and wait for others to recognise your work, give you a promotion, hire you for a job or tell you your opinion matters.”

“The best way to get noticed for a job is to network, network, network offline... and then use online to stay recent and relevant in a potential employer’s mind,” Lisa said.

The trick, Lisa explains, in selling your brand forward is to take part in the social media conversation. Weekly, post links to interesting articles or provide insightful and interesting comments on LinkedIn, XING, and other social media platforms. Show initiative and give your brand some coverage and visibility.

In the world of business, women should empower each other and surround themselves with other strong and confident women. Your brand should be one that works as a positive force for others.

In the world of social media and information, there is a great amount of knowledge your future employer can gather even before inviting a candidate into an interview.

Workplace bullying & Top Gear

... and what Jeremy Clarkson has got to do with it?

Jeremy Clarkson is in the middle of yet another media storm, but workplace bullying can happen everywhere.
Picture: Tony Harrison

Is there a Jeremy Clarkson in every workplace - and how to deal with them?

When the famous BBC Top Gear presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, took the headlines starting a violent episode with his colleague and producer, the media slightly missed the point of the whole chain of events that followed.

The real question in many people’s minds was how can an institution like the BBC not stand up against bullying? And if they can’t, is there a company in this country that will stand up in this situations?

The remarks of Clarkson’s recent undertakings can effectively be seen as a form of intimidation. But in many workplaces the bullying don’t usually take such violent form, but may cause different kind of scars.   

“Bullying is behaviour that leaves the victim feeling threatened, intimidated or offended,” says Dr Emily Griffiths, Clinical Psychologist at City Psychology Group.

“It can take a variety of forms and there are endless tactics that bullies use to cause harm to the victim. There is often an imbalance of power as the bully attempts to undermine the victim’s position, worth and value,” she continues. 

According to Dr. Emily, bullies may use verbal insults and intimidating threats often when the victim is in front of others, to belittle and humiliate.

“Psychological intimidation may show up as requests to complete meaningless tasks, rumour spreading, withholding information, exclusion from opportunities and being ignored. 

“Sexual harassment may take the form of unwelcome comments, inappropriate touching or sexual advances. Bullies may also resort to threats of physical violence or outright attacks,” she says. 

Dr. Emily’s advice for people in these situations is clear: “Share your concerns with someone you trust and if possible talk to your manager. Keep a record of any incidents, including what exactly happened, what was said and any documents that might provide evidence of bullying, such as emails.” 

Sense of hopelessness when career path is blocked

An Independent Career Coach, Kate Mansfield, who launched her own career coaching practice after a career in recruitment, works with women returning to the workplace after having children. Often that is a challenging time for women.

“I think women still often struggle to reconcile the competing demands of work and home life and in certain industry sectors, such as investment banking. I think women feel a lot of pressure and feel torn between family and having worked so hard and long for their careers,” Kate says.

“I work with a lot of women from multiple sectors such as banking, legal, technology and management consulting, who are all considering alternative career paths after having children because they don't see their former work lives as compatible with families and they no longer wish to work long hours and have long commutes.”

Especially in the capital, women can feel isolated when returning to their careers after starting a family, but that can also result them to feeling that their career path has taken a step back. 

Bullying, as well as this sense of hopelessness in their career, can result to depressive feelings. Especially if these women think that their future is not improving and they feel unsupported.  

“People experiencing feelings of anxiety and depression may find that they withdraw from work or other activities, isolate themselves from others, notice changes to their eating and sleeping patterns, difficulties concentrating and focussing on tasks, and have physiological sensations such as heart palpitations, muscle tension and tiredness,” says Dr Emily. 

Kate Mansfield advises women who feel hopeless about their professional future

Find out more about Kate and her practice from her website, here.

Visit The City Psychology website for more information about Dr. Emily Griffiths, here.

Are you unsure if you are being bullied at work? If that is the case, here are Dr. Emily's advice on how to find out. Ask yourself the following questions:



On 25th of March, BBC has reported that Top Gear presenter Clarkson has been dropped from Top Gear due to his 'unprovoked attack' on the shows producer. If you want to know the full story so far, open this Prezi:

Have your say. Let's see how Dolce Vita readers react in the world of car presenting. What do you think? Should he be fired?

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Mums in Business

Mums + Business

Esthers passion is to help other mums to fulfil their potential by starting businesses

Flexible working

Mothers these days are continuing the trend of having children at an older age than previously. According the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the average UK mother is now almost 30 (29.8 to be exact).

“We live in a society where we want to accomplish everything, so it is natural that some mothers build their career and then have children. It is just a shame that in general the workplaces are not flexible enough to cope it,” says Esther Radnor, who got the idea for her company, Mum Plus Business, whilst on maternity leave from her first son.

“After becoming a mother I didn’t want to return to a full time job and decided to set up my own business,” explains Esther,

“Although I had experience in PR and Marketing I felt that I needed to work with someone who could complement my skills and also provide support where necessary for the start-up. There wasn’t such a service out there that would help mothers connect to team up or work together in order to launch a successful business so I set up Mum Plus Business,” she says adding that she had noticed that there were so many mums in a comparable position to her. 

Mothers that wanted to develop their career and themselves but not being able to find suitable jobs that would give them the flexibility they needed.

Still hard to compare career and family

Esther feels that it is still generally harder to find flexible jobs compared to full-time jobs in London, even though the capital seems to have more knowledge around flexibility, probably because there are a greater number of mothers here voicing their demands.

“Most companies, in fact 98% do offer some form of flexible working, however very few actively advertise and promote the possibility of flexible working. Particularly more senior roles are mostly not advertised as flexible. 

“There is a barrier that needs to be overcome for many employers but flexible working can offer many benefits to businesses and shouldn’t be regarded as a hindrance,” Esther says.

Even though new technology means that many jobs can be carried out from home office, including meetings with Skype or other software, many businesses still don’t use enough of these options.

“Businesses should certainly take a look at the benefits of flexible working for their employees. Employers who work flexibly are for example generally less stressed and feel more in control of their work which results in better work outcomes,” Esther says. 

Amanda Rees

Helping mums with businesses

Mum Plus Business is the leading website helping mothers develop flexible careers trough a free collaborate program, enabling members to swap skills or find a business partner. The website also offers a job board, dedicated to flexible work opportunities for mothers. 

Esther helped both Judy Parris, who started her crafting business EK Buddy Blanquilts, and Amanda Rees, who founded Pumbaliciouc and sells pregnancy clothes online, to take their first steps into the world of business. 

Amanda Rees says that her inspiration to start a business came from trying to create better life balance to her family. Both she and her husband worked as lawyers. 

“Being a parent totally changed my priorities. My husband is also a lawyer and works very long hours. 

"I wanted to work but I also wanted the time to be a hands on mum. Setting up my own business gives me much more flexibility to work when I want," she says 

Judy Parris emerged herself from difficult times by focussing on her creativity.

“I re-found self worth through entrepreneurship,” she says. “I find crafting refreshing and therapeutic and it just feels right for me. I love what I do.”

Before starting her own business Judy worked as a beautician. She was also a full-time carer, which, she says, made her feel down at times. 

“You can feel a sense of helplessness and isolation when you witness a loved one in that kind of situation. But my work gave new purpose for my life,” she says.

At the moment Judy is working on a project that glows in the dark which makes her very proud of herself. You can see more of her products on her website here:

“Balancing work and family commitments can be difficult, whether you are pregnant or already a mother.  Working full time may be too much, but not working at all can become quite dull and make you feel isolated especially if you were used to going to a busy work place,” Esther says, adding that her number one advice to starting businesses is to plan their success.

Interactive map about live births by age group of mother in England and Wales between 1938-2013. Source: Office of National Statistics:


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