Hey -I am a 41 yr old guy who wears many earrings.



I have been warned that the Swiss are very conservative, and that they frown upon antiestablishmentarianism.

I wonder if this will be a problem for me in Lausanne, in my new job of teaching English to adults?

Will the schools I work for, and indeed the students have a problem with this?

thanks,

Frank.

I have found the swiss are really in to piercings, although I dont know how it is in Lausanne.

I have seen many people in customer facing jobs with piercings. Policemen with earrings, a nurse at my doctors with a nose ring, I think although the older Swiss may be conservative about some things thats not one of them.

They seem more relaxed in Zurich than in Sydney!

Well, at least my husband is *permitted* to wear jeans to work as a Primary-school teacher, whereas that would be considered too casual in his previous schools in Australia - when he was prac-teaching (in a government school in Sydney) he was even told to wear long trousers (not shorts, even though his 'work' shorts were $100 dress shorts, not casual ones)...here the teachers even wear 'sport' style pants and leggings.

We think the main cultural difference is that the kids don't usually wear school uniform, so the adults wear practical, sensible and comfortable clothing...and the kids usually do too (my 9 year old is the only girl in her class who wears skirts/dresses to school - the rest of the girls and boys wear trousers...)

Photo or it never happened

Leave Albert out of this.

You will not have any problems unless you look like this....

just many earrings ?? or many piercings ... ???
If you're cool, funny, smell good, wash your hair (if you have any), well you know, are fairly well behaved, the French part of Switzerland won't have any problems welcoming you

It's probably fair comment to say that many Swiss would frown upon antiestablishmentarianism. What this has to do with wearing earrings, I have no idea.

I've found the dress code in Switzerland pretty relaxed in most environments. Teaching English to adults is probably one of the most relaxed areas dress-wise. My (male) German teacher always wore bright pink jeans so if you can get away with that, I'd imagine you can get away with some facial hardware.

It's pretty simple: your boss has to convince students to part with their cash. If you look like a crusty with a dog on some hairy string, then your boss might have second thoughts.

First impressions count and there's nothing in the World you can do about it. So Floss

Thanks everyone - My question has been answered!

I wouldn't mix up the tradition of swiss men wearing an earring, with being fashionable or "unconventional" and pierced in all sorts of visible places... invisible being your own business.
Naturally as for teaching jobs, that would depend entirely on your employer, but if you don't have one yet, or want to find your own clients... Who do you want as clients? The rich biz guy in a suit or the poor student who has no rent money...mmm... The client can choose among a huge variety of teachers too...

So,what happened in the end? I'm really curious.I notice a lot of the postings were from people in Zurich.Lausanne,in my experience,is a bit more behind the times.
Did things work out for you?

Likewise. I have noticed that officials such as police wearing earrings is not uncommon.

My husband works for a bank and he was told he can no longer wear his earring (i found it very sexy) so grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Is it a gold earring? Perhaps the banks don't want their staff looking too affluent these days.

LOL yes it was a gold loop very sexy, thankgod he still as his long hair

There's a waitress in a local restaurant and when she's got the whole range of hardware in, it puts the customers right off their food (she looks a bit like the bloke at the beginning of this thread - but with hair, of course)