ACLU looking into employee complaints about Six Flags hairstyle standards

I think the grooming standards are simply part of the uniform. Otherwise, why not let everyone wear whatever clothes you show up to work in. If you want a job where you don't have to worry about first impressions, I think you'd probably want to work all by yourself at home.

I don't see this being a racest issue at all. It is just that the ACLU wants to make it a racest issue. I am sure that there are many others that are being affected by this policy, but it is the the African-American employees that the ACLU gets upset over. I am quite sure that if it were a group of white teens wanting to wear a cross somewhere on their uniform to express their faith, the ACLU would be supporting the park in their decission to fire them.

Someone earlier mentioned "At will employment". My wife is the HR director for a very large company, and I know from what she has told me, that term doesn't mean much. Personally, I think it should. If I own/run the company, then I should be allowed to make the rules. If I want to only hire one-legged, cross-eyes albinos with buck teeth who dip Skoal and whistle show tunes, that should be me right. If you don't want to cut your hair to fit the SF image, then get a job working the night shift at Wal-Mart. No one looks to strange to work there.

As long as--
-- the policy is well defined and put in writing,
-- is in effect at the time of people's hiring, (not changed afterwards)
-- the employees are made aware of the policy at the time of their hiring,
-- the policy is consistently and fairly enforced among all employees,

I don't see where there's any discrimination happening here. If you believe there is, then you should speak out with your wallet and not go to this park anymore.

^^ & ^ I like some of those comments. The ACLU gets on my nerves sometimes. As far as I know, they haven't really helped me any, and they sometimes stand for stuff that I'm against, but that's another story.

Businesses need to have rules. If you want to work at a certain business, you need to abide by their rules. As long as you know what you're getting yourself into beforehand, as far as the rules and guidelines are concerned, then you shouldn't complain.

I used to work at a hardware store. We would be doing physical work at times, some of it being outside, and it would be hot sometimes. It would have been nice to have been able to wear shorts, but that was against company policy. And ya know what? I dealt with it--no big deal. If you want to work at SFA, you need to abide by their rules, whether you agree with them or not. If you want to express yourself through your hairstyles, then find a job where they will let you do that.*** This post was edited by rablat5 6/22/2006 5:40:16 PM ***
*** This post was edited by rablat5 6/22/2006 5:40:38 PM ***

I am a longhair who has been a season ticket holder as Six Flags Great America (Chicago area) for many years. Due to rising admission fees, and more importantly, parking fees, I have been on the fence about renewing my pass once again for this year. I agree that businesses have the right to set dress codes, etc. for their employees. As long as these rules are enforced uniformily on all employees, I think claims of racism are probably unfounded. However, I have to ask myself if I want to be paying my hard earned dollars to a company that would not hire me without first forcing me to cut my hair and give up my freedom of expression before being allowed to work for them. Isn't the whole point of getting on a rollercoaster to let yourself go and be free? I guess not if you work for a major theme park !!

In consideration of these recent reports I, for one, choose not to visit any Six Flags parks this season. Ken *** This post was edited by K Roz 7/12/2006 12:33:38 AM ***

I've been working at Six Flags America for 4 years now, and I think that all of these claims of racism are ridiculous. I've seen white, black, latino, and asian people with long or colored hair told to change it or lose their job. These rules have been in the Six Flags handbook since I can remember and since we got a new general manger, he wanted to hit the ground running by changing the apperarence of the park. The last general manager we had, Janet, didn't hardly do a thing. In the two years i was working under her, i saw her one time. over the past year, I've seen Mr. Prather more times than I can count. You can't place all the blame on the one man that wants to make this park run like it's supposed to.