Waitress loses job after shaving head for cancer charity

Wow. Somebody needs to start sending letters to this employer, because this is ridiculous! I can see him wanting to fire her if she suddenly came in with purple hair and six new tattoos, but because she shaved her head for a cancer charity? No way! She should be commended, not fired!

Illegal termination. Not only that, now that the news is out, her bosses are now branded @!$%#s. I wish her well in her new job, she should get scads of offers.

Ridiculous. When I dyed my hair purple, I went through the same thing. Equal Opportunity employers aren't allowed to let discrimination cloud their judgment when hiring a new employee, why should it differ when deciding to fire someone? If she had cancer herself and had lost her hair to chemo, would her boss have fired her away?

That is an absolute dick move. Hopefully she had been working there for longer than 3 months, in which case she is fully within her rights to sue for wrongful termination - which hopefully she will, not because of any monetary reward, but to make sure things like that don't happen again.

To play devil's advocate, businesses are totally within their rights to refuse to hire someone because of hairstyle, tattoo, piercings, etc. I've been a waitress for 3 years, and when I decided to shave my head for charity (elbow length, curly red hair, funnily enough), I knew I wouldn't be able to work as a waitress till it grew back. Waitressing is one of those jobs where image matters. You have to understand your job market, the same way an investment banker would know it wouldn't be the best career move to show up in a tight, low cut t-shirt, mini skirt and hooker boots.

Actually I'm sure Nazis would approve of a Shaved head look. I think their actions were tasteless and ill conceived, but well within their rights. I have worked at several restaurants and they all had clauses in the employee manuals which stated that a person may be terminated for any reason in fact a reason doesn't even need to be given. So I would not advise her to waste money on legal fees that she will not be able to regain.

Keep in mind this is in Canada. I am not familiar with federal and provincial legislation in Canada, but I know at my job in TN, I can be fired if I fail to maintain a certain personal appearance because I work in an environment where I deal with customers directly. Simple fact, I knew this before the hired me.

Whether or not they had a clause int eh contract saying that she could be fired for no reason they should have told her when she told them ahead of time that she would be fired if she showed up to work with her hair cut. If they had said something then and she went ahead with it then I wouldn't call it wrongfull termination but because they said nothing about it she deserves a nice check from her former employers.

Unfortunately, in Ontario, employers can fire at will. This means an employer is not required to give an employee a reason why his or her employment is being terminated. It's a harsh loophole that many companies take advantage of. So, while it's very obvious that Stacey Fearnall was terminated due to an image issue, her employers can't be held responsible for the discrimination.

I live in Missouri, which is a fire-at-will state, and had to have an emergency surgery. My employer disapproved of my absence, and even though I had all the medical paperwork stating my situation, I was still fired. It's hard being in that situation and knowing that there's nothing that you can do.

On a more positive side, Stacey has done a truly amazing thing by making a radical donation like that, and due to the publicity of her wrongful termination, I'm sure there are plenty of employers in Ont. that are asking for her to join their force.