Alaska Airlines Updates Employee Appearance Standards, Adds Pronoun Pins

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: July 12, 2022
Published: March 29, 2022

95 comments

Alaska Airlines has this week adjusted employee appearance standards to be more inclusive, and has given employees the option of wearing pronoun pins. Let’s go over the full details of what has changed.

In this post:

Alaska Airlines’ more inclusive appearance standards

As of Monday, March 28, 2022, Alaska Airlines has adjusted appearance standards for employees. These new guidelines were designed in partnership with employees, and are intended to provide more freedom and flexibility in individual and gender expression.

With Alaska Airlines’ updated policy:

Fingernail polish, makeup, two earrings per ear, and a single stud nose piercing are expression options available to all employees
Grooming policies have been updated to allow tattoos in more locations, and there are more hair style options
The airline is working on developing new, gender-neutral uniform pieces for frontline employees, in collaboration with Seattle designer Luly Yang; uniforms will be focused on fit vs. gender identification

All Alaska Airlines employees will be allowed to wear nail polish

As James Thomas, Alaska Airlines’ Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, describes this:

“I know firsthand what it feels like not to be seen, heard or able to bring your authentic self to work. When I’ve experienced this, it didn’t feel great and honestly made it hard to come to work every day during those times, or to deliver my best work. Our employees, guests and communities we serve have my commitment we are going to keep listening and pushing ourselves to be better.”

Alaska Airlines’ new pronoun pins

Going forward, Alaska Airlines employees will have the choice of wear pins with their preferred pronouns, whether it’s he/him/his, she/her/hers, or they/them/theirs. The airline is also working on enabling guests to have the option to choose their personal pronouns while booking travel, and that’s expected to be rolled out by the end of 2022.

Alaska Airlines is rolling out employee pronoun pins

As Isaac, a lead customer service agent in Washington D.C., describes this development:

“I answer to all pronouns. I accept he/him/his, she/her/hers, and they/them/theirs. I feel that there has been greater awareness and sensitivity to personal pronouns, and I love that. But I’m also cognizant that changes take time and I want our society to feel comfortable with how they view and communicate with me.”

Isaac, an Alaska Airlines customer service agent

Alaska Airlines’ update about these changes has quotes and stories from all kinds of employees, so it’s worth a look. That includes this story:

Eager to always live their best life, Jason, an Alaska flight attendant by day and drag star by night, says the best thing a person can do when they don’t understand someone is to treat them with kindness and put themselves in their shoes.
Jason shared they chose to come out at their senior prom. They slipped on a dress while their mom was out of the house and went to the dance. There, they were called a disgrace and accused of seeking attention. “I didn’t do it to make anyone uncomfortable or to be the first,” Jason said. “I did it for me, and that’s all that matters.”
Jason says while the uniform changes are very positive, they also appreciate and look forward to the company’s support if faced with adversity among peers or guests who may find it difficult to see them wearing nail polish.

Jason, an Alaska Airlines flight attendant

Bottom line

Alaska Airlines has just updated its appearance standards for employees, to allow more freedom and flexibility in individual and gender expression. This includes allowing visible tattoos, nail polish, makeup, earrings, nose piercings, etc. Furthermore, employees now have the option of wearing pronoun pins, so that they can be addressed by their preferred pronoun.

It’s no secret that a lot of frontline airline employees in the United States don’t take much pride in their appearance. Personally I’m excited at the prospect of seeing more people being able to express themselves, because hopefully it makes them more motivated to put their best foot forward.

And for anyone who is offended by someone else’s (non-offensive) tattoo or nail polish, try to be a little bit more open-minded…

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Goforride Gold

March 30, 2022, 1:12 pm

Alaska Airlines doesn't really give a rip about what the ACLU thinks. This is all about the never ending labor shortage in Seattle, where by far most of these employees work, as well as Portland and San Francisco. Because of minimum wage laws passed by the City of Sea-Tac where the airport is located, people driving the shuttle buses to the rental car facility make almost as much as Alaska Airlines customer contact employees. The reality is that real-dollar wages for customer contact airline employees have fallen steadily for a generation, meaning that airlines no longer can be as choosy aboout whom they hire. These jobs used to be solid family wage jobs. That hasn't been the case since ultra low cost airlines rose on one side and airlines were burdened with leveraged buyouts and 9/11 on the other. Now, airlines, particularly in Seattle, are fishing in the same labor pool as Target and Home Depot for employees. So if making their employees be a global industry laughing stock gets some labor who doesn't think they have to meet the established standards, that's a small price to pay. The idea that Alaska Airlines wants you to bring your "authentic self to work" is nonsense. They only want you to do that if your authentic self is woke.

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David Guest

March 30, 2022, 12:04 pm

The left is practically dislocating their shoulder, patting themselves on the back for nominating a black woman to the Supreme Court. Yet none of you can define what a woman is. You don't see the irony in that??

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Nancy Guest

March 30, 2022, 2:18 am

I think this is a wonderful step forward for all employees. Now if only the rest of the country /world would get on board.

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Marston Gould Guest

March 30, 2022, 1:50 am

What I find amazing are all of the people out there who make comments such as "we con't care about the workers expression of themselves" or "there are only two genders, I don't care what people think." These types of close-minded perspectives demonstrate is that there are still a significant number of people out there who have no problem de-humanizing and/or disenfranchising other people or believe they have some birthright to enforce their views on others. Wake up, those days are long gone. I salute Alaska Airlines for working towards a greater inclusiveness - and in particular - the allowances towards indigenous American employees who are heavily represented at Alaska Airlines with their presence in Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and elsewhere.

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Dbk Guest

March 30, 2022, 1:30 am

If you are not comfortable addressing a flight attendant by their preferred pronoun then simply drop the pronoun and only say "excuse me, do you have ginger ale?" or if you want to get under their skin you only have to address them as flight attendant as in "excuse me flight attendant, do you have ginger ale?".

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