I ride my wife to work most days and she wears her Harley Davidson jacket to work. When I picked her up she was mad as hell and upset. Yesterday her new manager tells her that she can not wear that (Harley) jacket to work and she cant hang it on the back of her chair or anywhere else in the ofice. If she does she will be fired. She works in a hospital as a scheduler been there 8 years never has been a problem with her jacket till this new female manager comes to work there. Is this legal to tell someone what they can wear to and from work they dont provide her with her jacket or uniforms. Any lawyers out there that maybe able to inform me of the law on this subject. Any opinion people.

 

...nothing legal in that.

Unless of course they have a strick dress code that she agreed to when she was first hired and even then....it's a jacket for f*^k sakes.

 

Depends on where you live. Speak to a lawyer.

Texas is a Right to Work state and you can be released for any reason except sexual, race or age. My manager could fire me for wearing a green shirt if he wanted. Nothing I could do about it. I'm not a lawyer, but I do speak from experience. I was released from a company many years ago because the new manager didn't like me. Seriously, that was the reason. Went to a lawyer thinking I was gonna be rich, only to find out....nope....sorry....not in Texas. Just the way it is. "Course the good side of that is you can just up and quit for any reason and the company can't come after you.

The best course is to probably just stop wearing the jacket and wait it out. She's been there 8 years. Managers come and go. This one will too. Choose your battles at work carefully. This one's probably not worth it. Managers almost always come out on top and are supported by higher ups. Sux, but that's life.

 

Depends on if you live in an at will work state.

 

Ok so I guess I was wrong. Oh well and in that case Joe provided excellent advice./

 

Hre is my .02. First off I am a long time HD rider, 35 yrs, lots of miles on Panhead choppers. I'm also a Medical Professional - Nuclear Med Tech - I do Nuclear Cardiac Stress Test,and other Cardiovascular studies for a Cardiologist in Central Fl. I ride to the office most days. I have my parking spot next to the building - as it should be. My patients love it, some times we talk motorcycles -the little old ladies want to see my tattoos. I used to work at a Hospital and we had our own bike parking - mostly H-D, one Jap. I rode, also a guy fron the OR , his wife, and a couple of the maintance guys. no complaints from the patients, or staff.

Fl. is a right to work state -leagally they can fire you at will, like the other guy said. In practice a hospital won't do that unless it is a very serious violation. . She probably can push the jacket issue,and win, by going up the chain of command. ( if she is a good employee w/ a good record )

 

I was a concrete dispatcher for a company that was bought by a LIMEY company.
They told me not to wear Harley shirts to work cause a customer might see me.
The next day I wore a TRIUMPH shirt and as u can guess the shirt hit the fan!!!
I ended up becoming the worst employee they had fought them every step of the way.However my numbers were unmatcched by any one else. They finally put the fire out by relenting. I did risk it but it was FUN AS HELL.

 

Thanks everybody for the response. I guess she will have to role it up and put it in the saddle bag. She is still pissed. She has awards for perfect atendence and customer service. You would be surprised how many people talk to her about riding. I guess some people think that if you ride a motorcycle you are a bad person out to kill and rob and rape. I told her next time she saw a employee with a hello kitty jacket on or hanging up to point it out to her manager and see what she said.

 

Is there any kind of chain-of-command? This manager has to have a boss as well and if there is no specific policy regarding logos or wearing genuine animal-sourced apparel the the subordinate manager is in the wrong. I had something similar at a car store but it was written, not verbal. And that was Dress Pants With a Crease (no crease after the chaps come off) and no boots. 2 others on the staff wore ankle-height therapeutic boots, I faxed the letter to my attorney friend and he made the call. Either no boots of any kind, period. Or strike it. Left for another store soon after. 12 hours a day in kindergarten wasn't for me.

 

The others have posted excellent advice and while I have no advice for you, I'd be pissed off as well. If the staff is allowed to dress up for Halloween, tell your wife to dress up as a Harley biker chick... complete with a skull cap, tattoos, heavy make up, etc. That ought to yank her chain. What a wench!