Benefits December 23, 2003

Florida County Imposes Facial Piercing Limit

December 23, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - One set of earrings is fine, but more than three sets is pushing things - at least for employees of Orange County, Florida.
Reported by

That’s because officials in the Central Florida county government have announced that workers can wear a total of three earrings per earlobe and none can be in the top half of the ear, the Associated Press reported. All other facial piercing is verboten, according to the new policy.

That means loops through eyebrows, nose rings and studs through tongues will have no future place for county employees.

“They can’t even speak well when they have their tongues pierced,” Commissioner Mary Johnson, 70, told the AP

“It’s our belief that facial jewelry does not present the professional appearance we want our employees to have when dealing with the public,” said Deputy County Administrator Sharon Donoghue, who helped develop the new rules.

The lone holdout among commissioners was Homer Hartage, who was overruled. “Occasionally there will be employees who are good workers, but they see the world a little bit differently than the rest of us,” Hartage was quoted as saying.

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