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Is Pluto properly groomed?
Just about everyone has a dress code at work. Some are more lax than others, but few work places don’t have any requirements for dress or grooming. One of the few establishments I’d think of that wouldn’t have much in the way of a dress code would be an amusement park. I picture teenagers in t-shirts, baseball caps, and torn jeans when I think of amusement park employees. But the Disney Parks, as they are for many things, are an exception.
The Disney Parks follow a dress code that originated in the 1950s. Its rules are a bit more – to put it nicely – retro than one might expect. Rather than entirely tossing out the dress code and writing a new one, Park execs just make continual modifications to the rules.
A few weeks ago recent changes to the Disney Parks dress code for its employees leaked, which thus revealed the prior rules employees, or “cast members,” had to follow. The results were amusing in some places, and worth considering if you think your dream job might be at a Disney Park. The Orange County Register details the changes.
Remember when I said that the dress code was from the 1950s? That won’t be hard to believe once you read about the changes that have finally been made in the past few years. If you like your facial hair, up until now a job at a Disney Park wasn’t for you. The 2012 changes to the Disney Parks dress code finally allow men to have beards or goatees. Previously they were allowed to wear mustaches, but that rule had only been in effect since 2000 – before then, men had to be entirely clean shaven.
Some archaic rules had to be changed for women as well. Up until 2010 female employees were required to wear pantyhose. I wonder whether all of these requirements are across the board – for example, if a person is inside a Winnie the Pooh costume, do they really need to wear pantyhose, or does it matter if they don’t have exactly the correct facial hair?
Despite the gradual loosening of these dress codes from a different era, hair and clothing requirements are still somewhat strict. While men are allowed to sport beards and mustaches now, they must be trimmed neatly and cannot be longer than one quarter of an inch. Soul patches are still banned.
No employees may have visible tattoos, though that’s not much of a surprise, given the rest of the dress code. Many jobs with less strict grooming rules don’t allow visible tattoos. What are some of the other intense requirements that are still in place?
Any eyeglasses worn by employees must be conservative. That means muted (brown, black, gray, etc.) colors. Rules for nail polish are the same: all employees must have neatly trimmed nails, and nail polish must again be a “normal” color: stick to the usual range of reds, no black, gold, silver, or unusual bright colors like blue or green.
Basically, apply these general rules to all aspects of your personal style: keep your hair “classic”: no crazy hairdo’s or ornamented hair pieces, and no bright dye jobs. The only piercing employees are allowed to have are those in the ear, and I’ll bet there are also regulations on how many piercings one can have and the type of earrings that may be worn.
Thus the Disney Parks might be a magical place for guests, but perhaps not for any free-spirited prospective employees. If you can’t handle a strict dress code, then a job as a cast member isn’t for you.
Related Articles:
Check into a Disney Character Room
Rapunzel Inducted into the Disney Princess Royal Court
Disney Cruises in 2012 and 2013
The NFL Goes to the Disney Institute
*(This image by dbking is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
