Hair

[protege]

Actually, a 501(c)(3) is the proper designation for a tax-exempt charity.

Per Wikipedia: "A non-profit organization (abbreviated "NPO", or "non-profit" or "not-for-profit") is an organization whose primary objective is to support an issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes, without concern for monetary profit. A nonprofit organization may be involved in a wide range of areas relating to the arts, social issues, charities, early childhood education, healthcare, politics, religion, research, sports or some other endeavor."

With that said, let's not let this turn nasty, OK?

[myswtghst]

I donated to Locks for Love, and for me, it was entirely about the giving. I work for a NFP organization in my spare time, do not get paid for it, and know how much work can go into it. It just was nice to know that my hair could go to good use, since I was done with it. And that thank you postcard was a nice bonus, as something to show for what I'd done. As it were, everyone is entitled to their own opinion on the matter.

In the past, I've had all different kinds of hair. In high school, after my hairdresser moved away, I stopped cutting my hair and grew it out past my butt, then chopped it for LfL. I kind of got my "wild" hair out while in college, when no one really cared. I had bright purple hair I wore in the style of various female Final Fantasy characters, bleach blonde hair with neon pink streaks ala Gwen Stefani, dyed it bright, true, Coke-can red, and then dyed it so dark red it was nearly black. Currently its getting long again, and it's dyed dark red with copper and gold highlights, and I love it. Sometimes I'm a little sad that I can't dye it crazy colors anymore, but I'm still grateful my work doesn't mind my three tattoos, 8 piercings, and the fact that when I work weekends, I come in wearing a Spiderman shirt and flip flops.

[Gurndigarn]

That's illegal discrimination if he has a stricter dress code for one gender over the other. I'd talk with the Dept of Labor about this if I was you. This is 2007, not 1957.

You sure? It's been a fairly common practice in most of the places I've been in, both as an employee and as a customer.

[tollbaby]

Personally, I'd rather a 501(c)(3) spend their money on important stuff, like paying for the materials and people necessary to make the prosthetics (i.e. Locks for Love) instead of wasting money by sending me tons of ridiculous address labels (like the Cancer Society, Humane Society, etc.). I prefer giving to charities where the majority of my donation will actually MAKE IT to the cause I'm supporting. On average, only 30-50% of your donation is actually used for what it's being collected for with most charities. The rest goes to "administrative" costs (i.e. paying salaries, donation incentives, etc.).

I was SHOCKED when I worked for the Canadian Lung Association to see just how freely they spent money on fancier office supplies and upgrading travel for their staff to attend conferences and such. I'd have figured that, trying to raise money for disease research, bic pens and economy fares would have been better.

[MadMike]

Personally, I'd rather a 501(c)(3) spend their money on important stuff, like paying for the materials and people necessary to make the prosthetics (i.e. Locks for Love) instead of wasting money by sending me tons of ridiculous address labels (like the Cancer Society, Humane Society, etc.).

A friend of mine got into it with some charity over the same sort of thing. She donated what she was able to afford. She's a single mother, so I don't imagine it was a fortune, but she's a very kind, very generous person, and I'm sure gave as much as she could. They decided it wasn't enough, and proceeded to bug her for more. Very rude, if you ask me.

At some point, they tried to guilt her into giving them more money by subscribing her to their newsletter, which she did not ask for, and then complain about how it was actually costing them more money than she gave them. First came the letters, and then the phone calls. The phone calls were the final straw. She told them flat-out that they had blown it with her, and that she would never give them another cent.

It's really sad, she tried to do something nice, and they all they did was bitch because it wasn't enough. She wasn't looking for any kind of gratitude, but she didn't expect to be harassed either.

[Jack7957]

Back on topic, when I worked at the grocery store, we had a meeting where the new store manager went over the new rules, one being no facial hair. Well, I had my goatee then (still do) and I know one other person had one also. So I told the manager after the meeting that since I had it before the meeting, I was keeping it as long as the other employee kept his. Nobody liked this manager anyways, he only lasted less than a year before he got fired by corporate. So about two weeks later I come in and he rushes up to me and tells me that "jim" shaved off his so now I have to go home and shave mine off also. I ask him if he is sure that I should go home right now and shave it off, or do it after work. He tells me right now. I ask again, are you sure right now. Yes, he replies. Okay I say, and off I go. 2 hours later I'm back at work, clean shaven. I guess he forgot that I lived almost an hour away. Oh, I had been clocked in those 2 hours also, because our time clock will not let you punch in and out unless 15 minutes have passed, and when he came up to me, I had just punched in. So I wasn't going to sit there for 15 minutes, waiting to punch back out.

[Jester]

As you can see here: http://www.locksoflove.org/financials.html they had over half a million dollars in excess revenue ("profit") last year.

They could EASILY create a form letter, pop in the name, fold it and mail it.

Yes, they could. But as you yourself said, a NFP organization takes their profits and puts them back into the organization. Now, if LoL had $500,000 profit last year, they could have done what you said, or they could have put said money into another part of the organization, such as advertising (educating the public on what they do), sponsoring events to get more people to donate their hair, special treats for the people their organization benefit, etc.

Yes, a thank you note would be nice. I just agree with some others here that it is not necessary from a charity organization. Personally, I find far more repulsive the stories of charities guilting their donators or burying them with solicitations than I do a lack of a "proper" thank you. But that's just me.

As always, I reserve the right to be completely, horribly, and ridiculously wrong.

[Estil]

Shaving a bead/goatee is one thing (since in my case it takes only about six weeks to regrow) but I will not cut my hair and allow them to get away with discrimination (since it took me almost three years to get it to this length). If women can have long hair/piercings, there's no reason men can't have those either. Again, this is not the dark ages of racial/gender discrimination like in the 1950s/1960s anymore.

[Jester]

I am going to disagree with the people saying that this is discrimination. And this is coming from a guy that had long hair until he was just about 25.

It is not discriminatory to have slightly different uniform/grooming standards for men and women in the work place.

It is perfectly within the employer's rights to require women to wear bras, but not require the same of men.

It is perfectly within the employer's rights to allow women to weark skirts but not allow the same of men.

It is perfectly within the employer's rights to require men to have certain facial hair grooming practices but not have any such policy for women.

It is perfectly within the employer's rights to allow women to wear high heels and dresses but not allow men to do the same.

And it is perfectly within the employer's rights to have different policies regarding hair length for men and women. The U.S. military does just that with its members, I would like to point out.

Does this suck? Well, yes. It does. It is also reality. Men and women, while they should be allowed the same OPPORTUNITIES are not, in fact, the same. This is why we played "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" when we were kids, after all. This is why men are so fascinated with boobs and women, generally speaking....aren't. Because they are different.

And an employer recognizing that and having policies that do not affect pay or opportunities to be different for the genders is NOT illegal.

Again, does it suck? Yes. But it is within the employer's rights to set down certain standards for their employees, not just of work and behavior within the workplace, but also of dress and grooming as well.

And it is YOUR right to refuse to work for employers who have such policies, or who do anything else you believe to be wrong or unfair.

No one is MAKING Will-Mun work for Hess. For that matter, no one is making Will-Mun cut his hair. But if HE wants to work for THEM, it appears that he is, in fact, going to have to cut his hair.

And while that may suck, both in theory for many of us and in practice for Will, that is also the reality of the situation.

[NightAngel]

I never thought I'd say this but...

Bravo Jester! You are absolutely correct.

[Rapscallion]

It is perfectly within the employer's rights to require women to wear bras, but not require the same of men.

What if I... er, he wants to?

Rapscallion

[CancelMyService]

As a guy with a mid-back ponytail, I've found the rules on hair length pretty much always prove to be a barometer of the company. That is to say if they are that uptight about hair length, there's going to be about a million other things they're going to be uptight over that will send you screaming to the street.

As far as Jester's post, there's a difference between a man dressing in women's clothes and having long hair (I would hope they would have a rule banning facial hair on women though. Guess that makes me a hypocrite, heh.) As pointed out in this thread, it's not 1957 and most males aren't sporting whitewall haircuts like Wally and the Beav.

I think it's a ridiculous double standard to require men to keep their hair a certain length but not women, especially when 99.999 times out of 100 it has no effect on job safety or performance. What sucks is most jobs that require you to cut your hair count on the people applying for the jobs not to have the means to challenge it. I would imagine most of these "above the collar" requirements would fail to stand up in court since I can't see the employers making any case where it's essential to the job.

[NightAngel]

Most businesses want their employees to present a professional appearance. Right or wrong- most people do not consider long hair on a man as professional appearance.

At my last job we had a guy with medium length hair for awhile. I had so many customer complaints about his appearance I was ready to chop his hair off myself.

[Will-Mun]

Complaints about his hair? Who the hell actually complains about someone's hair?

Was the Hair mean to you ma'am, did it make fun of you? Are you really really old and believe everyone with long hair is a hippy, and must do illegal narcotics?

Or are you just a really annoying bitch who is SEARCHING for something to make a fuss over.


My hair doesn't make me unprofesional. My actions do. To think that Customers actually would complain about someones hair..

"Excuse me, I wanted to complain about that man's weight! It is completely unprofesional for a man to be so heavy! You should have made him lose 30 pounds before hireing him!"

Feh.

[Kilamon]

So, I quit wearing underwear... and, interestingly enough, so did the woman who sat beside me (but that's another story). And, I got a nip pierced (there were other reasons, but one of the important parts was such things weren't done in those days).

Ok, so when do we get that story?