A heavily-tattooed retail worker was sacked ‘15 minutes’ into her first day due to her ink despite having a face-to-face interview just days earlier.
Abbie Foote had ‘no idea’ her body art would cause so many issues on her first day on the job.
The 25-year-old, who had showcased her tattoos during her final interview, was sent home almost immediately.
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Sharing her frustration online, the controversial clip racked up over 866,000 views and a whopping 56,800 likes.
“I had no idea that the addition to my neck would be an issue considering I previously worked with them and reinterviewed showcasing my throat and arm tattoos,” Abbie, from Carnoustie, Scotland, told Need To Know.
“It is an old school saying that face, neck, and hand tattoos are called ‘job stoppers’.
“I began my first day and was quickly, 15 minutes into my shift, pulled aside by HR to get told I was getting dismissed and it’s due to my tattoos.”
Abbie was returning to her old job at Carnoustie Golf Links, a prestigious and iconic course in the golfing world.
In 2024, the artist had worked there for a summer season with tattoos – apart from her latest addition to her neck, which she got on 19 April.
After re-interviewing on 17 April, with her ink on display, she was offered a contract of employment on 21 April before her first day a week later on 28 April.
The shift started as normal, greeting her old colleagues before heading to pick up her new uniform – before she was stopped by HR.
The HR leader asked for a quick ‘catch up’ which turned out to be Abbie’s dismissal.
She said: “I follow her to the meeting room and she says ‘I hate to be the one to tell you this, it isn’t something I want to have to address, but it’s about uniform’.
“I told her ‘oh, I just haven’t picked up my shirt from the office yet’ and she said ‘no… it’s’ and gestured to my body.
“I replied ‘Wait. The tattoos?’ in shock, ‘but I have worked here before with my throat and other visible tattoos. And I reinterviewed under two weeks ago’.
“She proceeds to tell me that the new buyer doesn’t agree with visible tattoos.”
In complete and utter shock Abbie attempted to plead her case by stating her other colleagues have visible tattoos.
She also pleaded with the HR leader that she will wear a zip up uniform to keep them covered whilst at work.
The news left her very upset after she had just left her previous job to return to the course – which she was now being sacked from.
Abbie said: “I got upset and told her I just left my other job for this, have signed my new contracts and there was nothing about this in the contract or handbook mentioning anything about tattoos – only piercings.
“She said that she is sorry for the inconvenience but it was their fault and that I shouldn’t have even gotten past the interview process.
“I took five minutes in the room as I was upset about being newly unemployed.
“I ignored her request to gather my stuff and leave as soon as possible and went to tell my colleagues what had happened.
“Every one of them was shocked and couldn’t believe it was happening.
“My colleagues even went further and came with me to go speak to others in the office to make any sense of it.
“None of them agreed with this happening and told me to gather all evidence and reasoning for my dismissal.”
Shortly after this, Abbie’s team leader arrived at work and took note of everything that had been said in the dismissal meeting.
She claims that he even admitted to being ‘unaware’ of this ‘unwritten’ policy change made by the new buyer.
Following her dismissal, Abbie requested it in writing to fully understand why she was now unemployed.
She said: “I got the email the following night at 9:28pm with the reasoning that there ‘was an internal error in progressing your application for a customer-facing role without fully considering our uniform policy. As discussed, our policy does not permit visible full skin coverage tattoos that cannot be fully covered in customer-facing positions’, again this does not exist in any written policy and every other staff member was unaware of this.
“I was stunned and truly couldn’t believe it was real.
“I have never been treated unfairly due to my tattoos by an employer and my mind was racing thinking about how I now have no income in this economy.”
Following the dismissal, Abbie was offered a week’s worth of pay which under her part time contract would be three days.
However, she believes this was just ‘hush money’.
She said: “Of course I accepted as it was their error and I have no future income – but best believe I won’t be accepting it on the terms of ‘hush money’.”
Jam Press has approached Carnoustie Golf Links for a comment.
