To Hat, or Not to Hat?

Good morning... What can I get for you?

Today's story is a toe in the water on dress code. A few years back... during the "problem solver" years... I came to work with teams that were somewhat disjointed and contained multiple generations trying to work together and create the Starbucks Experience™... One of the ways I used to build a team mentality was to find an item to get partners rallied on a daily basis... Buy black polo shirts, get the team some team pins or in this case... a stash of black Starbucks hats to wear.

Now, in many Starbucks markets the hat is part of dress code. It is required by health code to hold the hair back. In Seattle, at the time, there wasn't any stores that wore hats... in fact , it was an unwritten or verbalized rule that hats were a "no-no". But in true Pat Nerr style, I looked up the dress code on hats... So... I bought the team hats... and for the most part, everyone loved them. The ones that didn't love them at least saw value in them.

One day, I get a call at home from my DM...

DM: "Ummm, Pat... I just stopped by your store and all of the 4 partners on had Starbucks hats on."

Pat: "Yep... They love them and it was a good team building move in such a disjointed store."

DM: "Pat... that's against dress code... You can't wear hats to work."

Pat: "Ahhhh, but you can. I looked it up in the dress code... there's a statement and guidelines on wearing hats."

DM: "Yeah... that's for New York... it's part of their health code."

Pat: "OK... I knew you might say that, so I'll ask you to consider this... If their health code requires it, and our policy states that dress code can be applied to the strictest guideline within the company... that aren't we meeting a higher standard than the rest of our district... and other districts?"

DM: "Jeeze... You always do this to me... ok... I'll support it."

As time went on, the other managers in my district got news that we wore hats and made a fuss. Some even called... I always explained the same logic. Usually at the end of the call, I ended up giving out the SKU for a pack of hats.

Now I'm not saying that Pat Nerr is responsible for partners wearing hats in the Seattle area or in the NW for that matter... but that district did start wearing hats... and you have to wonder... right?

We'll see you tomorrow for your usual...

Pat Nerr...