Discrimination in the workplace is often the subject of employment tribunals, with legislation such as the 2010 Equality Act featuring a range of ‘Protected Characteristics’ such as race, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability and religion that were covered.
Nobody would seriously consider male hair loss to count as a disability, given there is almost no job it would stop someone from being able to do as well as anyone with a full head of hair. Yet one employment tribunal appears to have seen baldness made a central issue.
The case surrounded Mark Jones, the 61-year-old former sales director of the Leeds-based Tango Network, the Independent reports. He has won a constructive dismissal case after being “chipped away at” by management who put him on a performance plan without justification, pushing him into resigning.
This came after his manager said he wanted a younger, more diverse office and not a team of “bald-headed 50-year-old men”. However, in a supreme irony, Mr Jones has a full head of hair and this jibe came from a boss who was himself middle-aged and bald.
If even someone who is bald can hold such an attitude, it suggests those who are not may feel they can get away with such attitudes too. Small wonder some who are thinning on to might want to get treatment for it.
Of course, it could be that a discrimination case might be linked to the protected characteristics of age and sex in a workplace where being male and of a certain age is seen as an impediment to ‘diversity’. But if the notion of baldness as another negative manifestation of a ‘male, pale and stale’ stereotype is encouraged, even by those who are themselves bald, such discrimination may increase.
Moreover, given some women suffer alopecia, it may be that negativity against bald staff is not limited to men.