A shock rocker with 2 feet of black-dyed hair, 10-gauge earrings and a pronounced tongue hoop isn't most employers' idea of the perfect hire. But in today's job market, even self-described Gen X freaks with the right skills are finding their way into mainstream workplaces.
That's what happened to Elton Palmer, 25, who moved to Los Angeles from Denver to make it big in rock 'n' roll but soon learned he needed a day job. With a high school degree and computer-programming training, Palmer easily landed a software development job with a fairly conservative firm in Ojai.
Palmer went to the interview with his hair pulled back in a ponytail and without his most obvious jewelry. For months, he wore a shirt and tie and began each day with a 10-minute camouflaging routine, taking out his jewelry and inserting clear plastic posts in his ear holes and a flat red retainer in his tongue.
Over time, however, he came to feel so indispensable that he began to flout company norms, going to work as his rocker self, "L10," and creating a stir among co-workers. Palmer was moved to a rear corner cubicle with floor-to-ceiling partitions. His photograph was left out of the company directory and he wasn't invited to informal employee gatherings. But he kept his job.
"I was an outcast of the company culture, and I was hidden away," Palmer recalled. But "they couldn't afford to lose me. And I loved that. I loved that I was getting raises because of my skills."
With employers struggling to find workers, job candidates in their 20s and early 30s with tongue studs, eyebrow rings and tattoo anklets are finding their way into offices, warehouses, hospitals and even banks, often by concealing their body modifications, but sometimes by openly ignoring traditional business dress codes.
"The tightness in the labor market affects everything. I don't want to say people are compromising, but they are not as stringent," said Ellen Hendrickson, market vice president at Initial Staffing Services Inc.'s Upland office.
Alysia Vanitzian, vice president and chief learning officer at the Employers Group in Los Angeles, the nation's oldest and largest human resources organization, said many employers, particularly in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, look the other way when it comes to body modifications if candidates have needed skills. "At this stage, a warm body is better than nobody--piercings included."
