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Our Expected Appearance Standards
The BIG IDEA
To grow the Wonder Dog brand to have a strong, happy, world-class reputation associated with bringing joy to dog families, all client-facing employees are required to keep their image clean, crisp and professional. Our goal is to make sure we don’t give anyone any reason to be distracted from our company mission.
To be clear, there are several things that can hinder our work, can be a distraction, offensive, or disrespectful that will work against what we are working towards: training dogs. So, being too loud or too casual, or not being delicate towards cultural sensitivities of our clients could all be considered distractions that take away from our company mission. For example, if you go to a barber and sit in his chair but all of the sudden starts to yell or sing next to your ear, that barber can give you the BEST haircut you’ve ever gotten. However, if you can’t get over how annoying he was, the haircut won’t matter because you’ll never want to be in their chair again! Same goes for dog training. We don’t want anything (that is an easy fix) to distract the clients from what we are trying to do for their family.
That is, our team needs to look clean, crisp and professional, while not coming across as either stuck up, stuffy or sexually alluring. Additionally, our team needs to be able to get down on the ground sometimes to work with dogs, but cannot end up dirty or messy or wrinkled because there are more lessons to get to in the day.
To put some specific boundaries to this acceptable range of appearances, here are some examples below, but more can be added in case-by-case scenarios.
Approved & Not Approved
Tops - Whether you are wearing a golf shirt in the summer or a jacket or pull-over in the winter, you must wear the Wonder Dog logo visibly on the outside so that you are easily identifiable at a client’s door, or walking into a vet’s office, or working at the Games. If wearing a jacket, then wear a Wonder Dog branded shirt (without excessive wrinkles, odors, stains, etc) with the first button buttoned up (no revealing chest hair, cleavage or gaudy jewelry, etc). No hoodies are allowed at work due to that look being too slack to be considered professional.
Bottoms - Wear jeans with no holes, khaki's or modest shorts/bermudas that are at least half the length of a woman’s thigh and even longer for guys. No skirts, dresses, jogging pants, yoga pants, cargo pants, or short shorts as you’ll be bending over and often on the ground with a dog so you’ll want all of the flexibility your clothes can handle while staying modest and appropriate.
Footwear - Wear nicer, closed-toed shoes, sneakers, boots, nicer rainboots, cowboy boots, etc so that you can keep your solid footing, However, no sandals, flip-flops, house shoes or military ultra-high tops, etc.
Hair - Keep all hair, beards, etc neat and orderly (in a ponytail, no extensively grown out colored roots, no fizzy unmanaged hair, no unmanaged beards, no beards longer than a half-inch in length, etc) since you’ll be bending over working with the dogs and will want both hands available with a full visual range (without hair in your face).
Make-Up - If you’d like to wear makeup or work with nails on, nail polish, ets. you’re more than welcome to. However, anything you use to accentuate your beauty should be kept neat and to a minimum (no nail jewelry, worn-down nail polish, oversized rings, gaudy make-up, crazy hair colors, purple lipstick, etc).
Jewelry - Besides the minimum jewelry of a ring or two and maybe a necklace, we don’t allow additional things like excessive bracelets, facial piercings, ankle jewelry, etc. We also stay away from any potentially offensive symbolism on your keychains, rings, necklaces, etc. You might be pro-guns, pro-Budweiser, or pro-Dallas Cowboys, but let’s keep all of those opinions for outside of work so that you ONLY represent Wonder Dog while at work. No ear rings for guys, and no gauges for anyone (so use the plugs if you have gauge holes).
Tattoos - We do allow tattoos, again, as long as they are not distracting nor potentially offensive. This means no tattoos above the shoulders (neck, face, etc), and no potentially offensive symbolism that is visible - this includes skulls, demons, snakes, dragons, religious, sexual, political, cuss words or anything else that could be considered grotesque or offensive to a client or partner. If you have any of these that are visible, then you will need to cover them with things like arm bands or bandages.
Tobacco Use - If you do use tobacco during work hours, you need to ensure you don’t smell. So if you smoke in the car between appointments, the windows need to be down so the odor isn’t noticeable. If you chew, make sure before seeing clients that your teeth are clean, etc.
We’re sure it goes without saying, but there is NO tobacco use in front of clients. No cigarettes, no vapes, no chew, etc. Once again, nothing to distract away from what we do at Wonder Dog and our mission.
Off-Work Hours - Just in case we actually need to say this, please don’t drive crazy or get intoxicated in anyways whatsoever while wearing Wonder Dog brand apparel on yourself or your vehicle. This means that if you go drinking after work with a few buddies, you’ll need to change your shirt to do so. We cannot risk our reputation for a night out with some friends.
If there is any question regarding your attire, speak with your supervisor for clarification.
One More Thing About Your Image: Your Personal Social Media
It (might be) about time that you “clean up” your social media accounts, if you need to or haven’t already, of anything that is nasty, unsightly or potentially offensive…or anything that you wouldn't want your grandma or preacher to see.
You might not believe how connected you’ll get with a family after visiting them IN THEIR HOMES for 4-8 weeks, but they are likely to look you up online. What they find there will either increase their respect for you or decrease it…and if they lose respect for you, then they are more likely to stop listening to your advice and suggestions which affects all that you/we are trying to do.
Your posts expressing your religious and political views, however potentially offensive, are fine, but you’ll want to watch out for posts that are vulgar, sexist, racist, mocking of any particular group, sexually promiscuous, violent towards anything at all, grotesque, etc. You’ll also need to stay away from any posts that complain about work, co-workers, bosses, clients, our company, our competition, or anything revealed in our internal meetings, like company secrets, financial standing, compensation, benefits, pricing, etc.
So take a moment now to go ahead and see if there’s anything that you thought was a riot to share with your friends back in high school, but maybe now it’s time to delete it or hide it.
If you’d like our help in either creating or updating your professional Linked-In profile, please ask us because we’d love to help and show you what language Wonder Dog employees use to describe the company. Thank you.