How to dress for the part

you are playing is back in the spotlight. One of the big supermarket chains has apparently told its workers they may not wear "stickers" relating to indigenous or sexual preference issues. Outrageous!

Or is it? The supermarket I normally shop in has a dress code. The staff wear black or black skirt/trousers and white tops. There is a "tie". This means the staff are recognisable even if the younger members of staff sometimes managed to do a bit of "styling" to their clothes. They have name tags - given names only. 

I would do away with the tie but I see nothing wrong with requiring them to wear black or black and white and the name tag. They are after all at work. I don't believe they should be able to add contentious statements to their clothes. In that supermarket they don't. I assume it is company policy. 

In the other supermarket in the same shopping centre the clothing requirements are different. It is there that apparently some staff are demanding that their "right" to wear contentious "stickers" is "respected". They have a "right"?

School uniforms are still worn by the vast majority of children in this country. It is something which causes comment from some overseas visitors from time to time but it is generally accepted as a good thing here. There are no arguments about what to wear to school. There is much less competition around clothing.

We see uniforms in other places as well - the police, the ambulance service, firefighters, the armed services and in companies providing all sorts of services to the public. The are the robes worn in court and in church.  On the rare occasions on which I have gone into court I know I am expected to dress to a certain standard - preferably darker, plainer clothing. It is because I am there to be a support for someone else. I am not there for myself.  It is not about "look at me". I would not be doing my job if I went in wearing "look at me" clothing.

And surely the same thing applies to anyone in a role which involves serving others in any capacity? Unless your role directly relates to the issue in question shouldn't you leave your stickers, badges, t-shirts etc at home waiting for your time away from work? I don't want to be served in a supermarket by people who blatantly display a preference for any one thing over another. 

The idea that there is some sort of "right" to do this, along with all the other "rights" some now demand leaves me wondering what is going on? Have they forgotten they are there to do a job - and that someone else is paying them?