The Home Depot is a hardware store. As employees we are doing heavy lifting, crawling in shelves on our hands and knees, going up and down ladders with heavy boxes, sweating profusely and constantly getting dehydrated. It's a job that requires a lot of patience, tolerance and energy on a daily basis.

The Home Depot not only does not adhere to it's own dress code across all stores (many stores have varying dress codes), it is also extremely difficult and dehumanizing to follow the dress code. Collared shirts are too hot and formal for a job where garden associates get covered in soil and gunk on the daily, paint associates are covered in paint and stains and lumber associates are covered in sawdust, concrete and grime all day. Colored hair is allowed at SOME stores but not all. Colored hair doesn't make you unprofessional. Colored hair should be allowed across all stores. Minimal facial piercings such as nose, lip or eyebrow should be allowed across all stores. They cause no safety hazard and are as common as ear piercings. The Home Depot already allows tattoos, this would be a HUGE step in employee satisfaction at work. Alternative people work just as hard as anyone else and just because their personality is reflected in their appearance they are judged and refused promotions. Home Depot, as one of the biggest retailers needs to step up and show that your appearance does not effect how you perform your job.

With the temperatures in places like Florida, Arizona, California and Nevada, being required to wear pants is ridiculous and dangerous. We are constantly covered in sweat and wearing light clothing is the only thing that helps in a store with no AC. Home Depot does not even change dress code policies for people with a history of of heatstroke, heat exhaustion and other various pre-existing conditions relating to overheating. Punishing employees for wearing non-revealing light clothing such as tank tops and shorts during the summer heat waves is causing heat exhaustion and heatstroke. REFORM THE DRESS CODE.