Okay here's the deal. My boss at the library has a supervisor above her. This is still a fairly new appointment and in the time that this supervisor has been in place, it seems that power has gone to her head a bit.

Now I didn't care one way or another until it started affecting me. Not only that, but it started affecting my boss. I like my boss. She's a pretty groovy chick. I like to think of her as my friend as well as m y co-worker and my superior. So, it bothers me to see her upset. And it bothers me that this situation is causing her grief.

Here's the situation as it stands. The supervisor above my boss doesn't like for her student workers to wear facial piercings. Okay. No problem. My boss doesn't care if we do, though. I had facial piercings when I got hired and no one said a word. BUT it was a different person in the position at the time. Still, the previous supervisor has never had anything to say against it, the Dean of the library has never had a word to say against it, and until now the current supervisor has not said a word about it.

The other day she came to my boss directly stating that one of her student workers told her I was still wearing my facial piercing (note: this was after she was told she couldn't wear her's upstairs and so she went whining about mine) and that she wanted my boss to make me stop wearing it. My boss doesn't agree with this decree for her own reasons. I was fine with the email the supervisor had sent out. That didn't make me stop wearing them, but it was at least a general thing. Now she has made it personal.

I have no intention on taking out my facial piercing. Not when I was hired with it and no one complained. Not when I have worked there for OVER A YEAR and no one has had a word to say about it. Not when I have gone into work with every tattoo I have blazing bright as day and no one complained about that. Not when my boss has no problem with it. Not when the DEAN OF THE LIBRARY has no complaints about it or my work. Not when my customers have never complained. Not because someone I don't even work directly with has a personal issue with them. And certainly not because some girl had to whine about it because she couldn't wear hers.

I hope it doesn't come down to it, but I am prepared to fight for my rights to do with my body as I see fit. I could understand if I was in a food service position. I could understand if I worked with machinery where it might cause a safety issue. I could understand if my jewlery was more blatant or visually distracting. But what I have is no more really than a large piece of GLITTER on the side of my nose. I don't even wear the lebret anymore because it was causing my teeth pain. But I am not taking the nose ring out. My boss knows this and knows that I am prepared to fight this even if I have to go to the president of the university.

If it was a problem something should have been said when I was hired. It was not said and I will not be put upon over a year later because someone got a promotion and the power went to their head. There are full time employees with stretched earlobes and that is allowed. There are full time employees that are allowed liberties such as listening to music when student workers who do nothing more than put books back on the shelves are not allowed this. Marc believes that the whole thing is facist. I just believe that I am not going to stand for it and prepared to fight for what I believe in.

To quote Shakespeare "Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!"