Can You Wear Makeup While Working At Dunkin Donuts

Weird Rules That Dunkin' Donuts Workers Accept To Follow

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America might run on Dunkin', but what about those who keep Dunkin' running?

You know them by their signature visor and their staple brown apron: the people behind America'due south favorite coffee-and-donut firm, who perfect your Coolatta and dole out donut combos on the daily. The Dunkin' workforce is powerful — and as of this summer, it'due south expanding. With 25,000 new jobs opened last yr lonely and many American'due south uprooted from onetime employment past the pandemic, Dunkin' Donuts is a more accessible career option than e'er. It's estimated that, worldwide, around 270,000 people get paychecks from the brand — at one betoken, Madonna was ane of them. But what exactly does working there entail?

In search of the authentic Dunkin' employee feel, we did a deep swoop into the employee handbook, the depths of Reddit, and spoke to one-time employee Caroline Hoffman, who worked at Dunkin Donuts in Parma, Ohio the summer between high school and college. (It would exist Hoffman's first and last feel in the food sector service.) Looking beyond the visor and frock, we uncovered exactly what these workers are signing up for, when they sign on with the national chain. Some of the rules? Pretty weird.

You can't have acrylic nails and only certain smash smooth colors are permitted

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Ever checked the fingernails on the person handing you your 20 cents of change at Dunkin'? We haven't either. Only, if yous were to look, you might observe they're always pretty blank. Dunkin' has an anti-fancy-nail policy outlined in its handbook — which, past the mode, yous can snag a copy of online if you're ever in demand of some lite reading.

Fingernails must be "kept maintained and clean, free of clay or droppings," the policy begins, before getting more strict. (Hey, we all appreciate clean hands more in this mail-pandemic world than ever before.) The handbook goes on to outline: "Nail polish is express to natural colors and may not be more than ½" long from the tip of the finger. Artificial nails, nail charms or decals are non permitted."

One Reddit user confirmed that acrylics, while fabulous everywhere else, are not and so chic at Dunkin. "No acrylics, no smooth. [The manager] fired a girl for non removing her acrylics and she gave her like 5 days to do it," the Reddit commenter confirmed. While at that place seem to be some inconsistencies between locations about how stringently this rule is implemented, the fact that it'southward in the handbook seems strange plenty.

In that location are strict rules on jewelry, makeup, and tattoos

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While Dunkin's anti-acrylics opinion might make sense — a chip of polish in an egg sandwich is a frightening thought — the coffee chain also has inexplicably specific rules regarding jewelry, makeup, and tattoos. The handbook outlines that tattoos must be covered. Seems a bit uptight, since not only did Dunkin' make Skinfo's list of most tattoo-friendly employers, but they also celebrated National Tattoo Twenty-four hour period last summer with a line of their own temporary ink.

And so that line in the transmission may need updating. Just as employees on Indeed take verified, the official visitor policies on jewelry and makeup are more heavily adhered to: they are "limited to wearing no more than than two (ii) earrings per ear," and hoops are prohibited, which just begs the question, does Dunkin' know the proverb about hoops?

"Necklaces must be worn under shirts," the volume goes on to outline. "Watches and a single ring on each paw may be worn. Bracelets should exist removed before starting a shift. Facial jewelry and natural language rings must be removed before the start of a shift."

If you recollect that verges on absurd, their makeup policies will put you over the border. Dunkin' employees are obviously non allowed to wearable "excessive makeup," which is then specified as "dark eyeliner and bright colored eyeshadow." We don't know about you, but we see no problem with a little scrap of color-pop eyelid inspiration with daily Dunks!

You have to wear jeans or khakis (no black jeans!)

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Then, aye, just nearly any workplace has a clothes code. And equally we've established, Dunkin'south is in many ways oddly specific. But here'south where information technology gets a little weirder.

The Dunkin' look starts with a crisp white polo — which, as Hoffman and many other employees have attested to, gets very dirty. "My mom used to brand me change clothes in the garage when I got home," Hoffman remembers. The coffee stains are not hands removed, but neither is the odour.

That white polo is layered under the brownish apron, and topped with the visor and, these days, a mandatory mask (there are branded options, of grade). This is all the fairly standard part. But as for what to wear on the bottom? Dunkin' demands either khakis or jeans, with an emphasis that seems consistent across chains on no black jeans. As one Indeed member put information technology: "Bluish jeans Simply."

What is going on here? Is it that the blackness would clash with the brown apron? If so, minus 10 for the weird dominion, but plus xx for the fashion sense.

Socks must exist worn at all times

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This rule made u.s.a. express joy. Something about seeing "SOCKS: Must be worn at all times," in the employee handbook just feels hilarious and bizarre. The coffee and donut chain cites their "health and sanitation policies" every bit the reason for this decree, which nosotros could run into a case being made for. One quick Google search of "is wearing socks more sanitary than not?" turns upwards pages worth of articles about how socks absorb moisture, should probably be changed every day, and how not wearing them could indeed be bad for your health. Didn't know socks were such a hot topic in the health loonshit? Yous're non alone.

But Dunkin' might not actually exist so well-versed on the sanitary sock discipline either. When we asked Hoffman if she remembered that rule, she said information technology probably has more to exercise with the shoe requirements than annihilation else. "The shoes were so weird," she told us, "so that was probably correct."

You're required to buy a pair of "very weird" shoes

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The shoes Dunkin' workers are required to wear are the talk of the message boards. According to the handbook, they must be blackness, rubber-soled, and closed-toe. They too must be "polished or brushed clean."

"PLEASE habiliment non-slip shoes," ane Reddit user warned a new Dunkin' rent. "Ice and water and lids and wax paper and bags will kill your a** without em." The Redditor didn't mention anything most the shoe polishing mandate, and so godspeed to that new Dunkin rent.

Hoffman remembers that when she started, her manager handed her a flyer with a picture of the verbal blazon of shoe she needed. "We had to purchase a very, very ugly and specific shoe for the task. This might exist standard for other food service jobs, this was the only 1 I always had, only I remember going to the mall with the photograph in my mitt looking for it," she says. "They were a special not-sideslip shoe, and they were black and mesomorphic."

Hoffman'south mom made her leave the shoes in the garage too, because non but did they olfactory property like donuts, but "they were an eyesore."

The preparation is pretty systematic

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If you've ever worked for a large chain of any sort, you know that they don't exit much up to hazard when information technology comes to training. Later watching many vlogs near new hires' showtime weeks at Dunkin' (a surprising amount of these YouTube specialties exist), we gleaned a chip of insight into the quirky training regimen that Dunkin employs.

Starting time of all, they teach a couple of different acronyms to their workers. Our personal favorite is "Due east.M.C.," also known as the "egg meat cheese equation," which outlines how to make a sandwich while also paying homage to Albert Einstein. The second is C.A.R.Due east., which is a 6-step procedure that means "Greet, accept club, collect payment, gather guild, evangelize, thank yous and come again" — not sure exactly how the messages translate, simply we institute this 1 on a Quizlet someone made summarizing the employee training procedures.

While on-the-floor training seems to vary, nosotros were surprised to learn that the full general consensus seems to exist to kickoff newbies on iced and hot coffee outset, and encourage them to focus solely on those nuts for their first ii shifts. Hoffman remembers that the iced coffee wasn't as well complicated; "We fabricated the iced coffee in this giant bucket with water ice and h2o and stuff," she said.

Only more "senior" crew members can make the breakfast sandwiches

Preparing a breakfast sandwich at Dunkin' donuts

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"One of the rules that I idea was kind of comical," Hoffman began, "was that just more 'senior' crew members could prep and put together the breakfast sandwiches." She went on to explain that during her summertime spent backside the register at Dunkin Donuts, she started to recollect this was "kind of backwards."

"Working the annals and drive through tin require a fleck of mental math, a lot of speed, and quick thinking — especially if a customer is feeling moody that 24-hour interval. I was usually the ane spinning out 10 iced lattes and packing two dozen donuts, while the more senior members would toast some bagels or put cheese on croissants." Sounds similar maybe this dominion was less about capability and more near rewarding the senior members. Hoffman admits that she never made information technology to breakfast-sandwich level as a Dunkin' employee, but that the entire summer she worked there, she wanted to. "I was jealous!" she laughed.

If you don't use a carafe of java within 18 minutes, you must discard it

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This is a pride betoken for Dunkin: at the meridian of their printing kit, they proclaim that "Dunkin' Donuts java is freshly ground, freshly brewed and freshly served. If not used within eighteen minutes, Dunkin' Donuts coffee is discarded and a new carafe is freshly brewed."

We get it, overcooked coffee is a less-than-appetizing way to get your caffeine prepare, just you have to wonder most the scientific discipline behind the 18-minute decision. As Hoffman remembers, this rule was pretty strictly adhered to at her branch in Parma, Ohio. Hoffman recalled that there was an bodily timer on the coffee carafe, and whenever it would ring, an employee was charged with pouring it out and refreshing it.

"It's a little wasteful, but coffee does get stale," Hoffman said. "Especially when you're making it in such big batches."

Reddit users didn't have the same experience. Although Dunkin' practically guarantees the eighteen-minute standard, there's no fashion to ensure every location complies. "It might be a company standard but whether upper management enforces it or not is entirely upwardly in the air. At my Dunkin, nosotros would marker the pots, only our managers were too inexpensive to waste the coffee, so we only remarked them without pouring anything out," confessed ane user.

If you lot fall in love with a coworker, one of you has to move to a different location

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Ah, the office romance. A tale every bit old as time, and one made fifty-fifty sweeter when "the office" is packed with powdery donuts. It's no surprise that Dunkin' addresses workplace relationships in their handbook, any quality employer should probably consider the reality that 8-hour shifts alongside coworkers oftentimes blossoms into something more. But the tactics they outline for how they handle romances that develop over the Coolatta machine are rather odd. First, if two co-workers go involved with each other, motility in together, or get married, Dunkin' "will commencement attempt to offering comparable employment in another department/store to one of the individuals." Basically, one partner needs to motility to some other franchise location. Perchance Dunkin simply subscribes to the notion that absence makes the middle abound fonder?

If an alternate employment pick isn't bachelor, Dunkin' says, they volition "terminate" one of the two employees. This begs the question — who stays and who moves onward to donut-less employment? Dunkin' lets the couple themselves choose, and if they tin't agree, management will step in and decide for them: "If the two employees together cannot accomplish a conclusion on the job move or on the termination," the handbook reads, "the Visitor will make the decision based on the best business concern-related interests of the Company."

You must be able to work weekends

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The Dunks employee handbook is, in many ways, a very standard document. The paragraphs come across each other, broken up occasionally by a bullet point or subtitle. But about the end, an entire sentence sits bolded, continuing out starkly from the residue of the document: "We will not be able to offer employment to whatsoever employee that cannot work weekends."

As the visitor besides attests, they "do a majority of our concern" on weekends, and then this rule makes sense. But information technology'due south hard to imagine, because there are v other days of the week to schedule workers on, that a person could be precluded from employment altogether merely considering they can't make information technology in on Sabbatum or Sunday.

In a tip video nigh how she got hired at Dunkin' over the summer, Molly Yard explains that she thinks i of the main reasons she nailed downward an interview with the chain was because she marked "bachelor" to every twenty-four hours of the week when applying. Anecdotal, sure, but it does seem to fit with the company's policy.

If y'all are contacted past a reporter, you must tell your manager immediately and have them contact the Dunkin HELP line

The notion of a Assistance telephone line existence used in response to a reporter inquiry? Amazing. Dunkin' is very articulate about this in their handbook: "If yous are ever approached by a reporter or any fellow member of the media for whatsoever reason, you should first accept your Director contact the 24 Hr Dunkin' HELP Line; and, then immediately notify Don MacDonald, VP of Operations."

Seems like they're stressed, and later examining the press they've gotten in the last decade — everything from racist advertizement debacles and TikTok scandals to fatally overworked employees — they may accept proficient reason to be. Dunkin' Donuts instructs their employees to "Suggest media that all inquiries must be referred to corporate." One exception to this rule that we're happy they made last year? Adam Taddi, an eighteen-yr-quondam employee from Portland, Maine, explained his viral signage to The Boston Earth: "UH OH SPICY! PUMPKIN! HAHAHAHA PUMPKIN TASTY," he wrote on the store'south front lath, prompting love from customers everywhere.