By BAMIDELE JOHNSON
I am not the type awash with doubts about my aversion to certain modern expressions of individuality, difference and personhood. But in spite of myself, I felt for a young woman, whose story was told on X (nee Twitter) by someone trying to get her a job as a personal assistant to the CEO of an oil servicing firm. The narrator was not just disappointed at the way the job interview went, but was left stewing.
The young woman, he said, aced the first stage of the interview, which entitled her to an audience with the CEO and another person in the organization. The interview did not take place because the CEO’s eyes were offended by the candidate’s multiple piercings, ankle chain and unignorable panty lines. That was a hat-trick of transgressions. The CEO told the candidate so, bringing the session to an abrupt end. He probably thought that appearance was fit for or a musical video shoot or the sex marketplace. State-of-the-tart, the CEO must have concluded.
If I appeared at the wedding of a friend’s daughter/son or his mom’s funeral wearing a swimsuit-tight T-shirt atop a pair of leggings and outsized sunglasses, I’d be unlikely to be thought of as appropriately attired- except, of course, my friend was Portable or Charly Boy.
The narrator shared the message she sent and it was clear that the CEO’s words were like a brick to her face. I feel for her in spite of myself because she went close to her first job. But I wonder why prospective hires can’t tone things down. I understand that they have the right to free expression, including that of personal tastes.
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But the fact, however hard-hearted it may seem, is that certain workplaces have no room for such and they have right to give the middle finger to anyone willing to test how accommodating they are of huge eyelashes, ferocious silver nails and a ring you could land a chopper on. Her body, her choice. The man’s company, his choice.
If I appeared at the wedding of a friend’s daughter/son or his mom’s funeral wearing a swimsuit-tight T-shirt atop a pair of leggings and outsized sunglasses, I’d be unlikely to be thought of as appropriately attired- except, of course, my friend was Portable or Charly Boy. My friends are square people like myself. People with my type of constitution haven’t disappeared. They actually are still many. Young people have to put that into consideration as well as the culture in workplaces to which they are applying.
