There is a story that has done the rounds for years about a London goth who got a contract doing information security at a Big Bank... all fine until the bit where the bank's employee dress code prohibits visible tattoos and Our Man has ink on his scalp, cheeks, lips, ears... basically everywhere. 🧵 - ThreadSky

dylanbeatt.ie • 71 days ago

There is a story that has done the rounds for years about a London goth who got a contract doing information security at a Big Bank... all fine until the bit where the bank's employee dress code prohibits visible tattoos and Our Man has ink on his scalp, cheeks, lips, ears... basically everywhere. 🧵

Reposted from Sy Brand

"Professionalism" is a ploy to stop more programmers from wearing cat ears because it makes them too powerful

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dylanbeatt.ie•71 days ago

After a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing, they agree that Our Man will be exempt from the dress code as long as he doesn't use the public building reception or set foot on the trading floor. Stay out of sight, don't scare the normals, do the job, take the big fat day rate, and go home.

Result.

dylanbeatt.ie•71 days ago

Few days into the gig one of the senior Vice Pompatus types wanders down to meet Our Man, looks him up and down, comes out with "so, you're really that good at network security, are you?"

To the immortal reply "yes, actually, I am... but just imagine how much better I'd be if I was wearing a suit."

andersnoras.com•71 days ago

Way back when I worked in the City, a colleague made a case for how the mandatory necktie ruined his coding. For some reason, the tie always ended up on his keyboard. Proof that dress codes are why Fintech doesn’t have 10x engineers.

dylanbeatt.ie•71 days ago

Ties are bad for coding because they restrict the major blood vessels between the heart and the head and end up depriving the brain of oxygen.

This also explains their enduring popularity in finance and politics.

andersnoras.com•71 days ago

Ties are the sartorial equivalent of COBOL. Unmaintainable knots, you haven’t updated you tie collection in decades and only traditional banks still use them.

nativewired.com•71 days ago

A true story or an urban legend?

dylanbeatt.ie•71 days ago

I know a guy who dated a girl who was in a band with a bloke who worked with a dude who absolutely swears that it happened to his mum's cousin's flatmate.

dylanbeatt.ie•71 days ago

(it is almost certainly an urban legend arising from multiple real incidents... I first read a version of this story on the uk.people.gothic Usenet newsgroup back in 1998 or so, and I've heard versions of the story from various London goth types over the years.)

nativewired.com•71 days ago

So maybe true :)

At least it is a good story

michaelgain.bsky.social•71 days ago

I am really against the idea of judging someone's ability based on their appearance and having some predefined "look" to adhere to. While it can start with pointing out tattoos, chosen attire, hairstyle it can swiftly move onto judging people for things they can't choose e.g. injury, disability

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