"Professional" Appearance And Speech

The workplace is in many instances dominated by employers who enforce policies that have absolutely nothing to do with the work.  Slaves to tradition, emotionalism, or consensus with imbeciles, they will penalize people who do such supposedly problematic things as have hair dyed to specific colors or wearing clothing that is not especially formal.  It could be a way to exert abusive power over those who are dependent on them for an income or it could be driven by an idiotic love of social norms.  Whatever the motivation that leads someone to act on them, these ideas are objectively false and are ultimately used to betray reason, reinforce erroneous discriminatory hiring or other treatment, or feed the egos of fools.

What if someone has visible tattoos?  While some people actually assume this is unprofessional because they are accustomed to the asinine tradition of covering tattoos at work--or simply refusing to hire someone with tattoos, whether they would be visible at work or not--it does not impair someone's skills at all.  They are not disrespectful to customers/clients, employers, fellow workers, or (more importantly) to reason by having these markings, not unless the tattoo expresses some irrationalistic philosophy.  Tattoos are not and by logical necessity could not be unprofessional for just being tattoos even if some people react with discomfort.

Then there are things like hair dyed to colors that are similarly offend some people on the basis of assumptions or emotionalism.  Perhaps people who oppose these things in the workplace stereotype people with dyed hair (moreso if it is dyed to bright colors that are not natural) or tattoos as having worldviews or personality traits that are wholly irrelevant to factors like this.  The same is true of people who object to workplace conversations that are not strictly about the work itself, including personal bonding or workplace flirtation, condemning things that are neither irrational nor immoral on the only ethical system with evidence (Christianity's).

Profanity, like tattoos, dyed hair, or casual clothing, cannot be unprofessional because it has nothing to do with the quality of a person's professional skills or with their ability or desire to effectively tend to their client's or employers needs.  What it might do is upset some people on the meaningless basis of emotionalistic preferences, certainly, but such people cannot deserve to be appeased since they are not pleased by reason, morality, and other truths; they derive pleasure or satisfaction from having their arbitrary, subjective, often socially-manipulated desires gratified at the expense of another person's career or wellbeing.

The most common thing that people encourage and object to the absence of, though, is clothing.  Wear casual clothing in many offices or other workplaces, and a certain kind of common employer will insist that this does not present the company well, maybe focusing on customer perception.  First of all, in many jobs, the customers do not interact with or see the workers at all.  Second, even if they do, their own subjective preferences are as equally meaningless in a moral regard as those of employers.  "Professional" clothing is a nonexistent category because professional competency and, far more significantly, worldview and actions are not dictated by casual or formal clothing.  Employers and consumers who believe otherwise are very obviously, inherently in the wrong.