TikTok user @euphoriafaith says she was sent home from work after showing up with her nails done, despite claiming that no one had told her about a policy prohibiting them. At the time of publication, her video had garnered 889,300 views and 2,516 comments.
Euphoria, who goes by @euphoriafaith on TikTok, says she was hired as a cook at her daughter's school because the schedule worked well for her family. She explains that being able to work at the same school her daughter attends is important because she needs to be available for her.
According to Euphoria, when she was hired, she was asked whether she wanted to take on a management position or simply work as a cook.
"I purposely pick my daughter's school, okay? Because my daughter, she's working through some things, and I want to be close to her. Unfortunately, her school did not have a management position. So I'm stuck in this low level position, dealing with people above me who have issues with me," she says.
At the orientation meeting, the topic of fake nails came up. According to Euphoria, she was told that they can have French tip nails. So a few weeks ago, she went and got them. But when she got to work, she was told that her nails were not approved.
The person above Euphoria said that French tip nails were approved for others, but not for them. "That's their policy. This is our policy," she says she was told. Euphoria then took off the tips, but still got her natural nails manicured.
She states that she got them done because she had a wedding coming up and wanted to have her nails done for that. But when she got to work she was told that she needed to leave before she could even clock in.
She begins to argue that her nails are a powder, not paint, and that there is no way the tip of her nail came come off. She says that they aren't required to wear gloves, so she isn't sure what the issue is since she took off the French tip.
Why Euphoria Says She Was Never Informed of the Workplace Nail Policy
There was a whiteboard that her manager never used that Euphoria decided to use for quotes of the day when she was first hired in order to bring up morale. "I brought some expo markers in from work, and I started doing quote of the day because I used to do that. We used to do that at my old job," she says. It was something for employees to look forward to, and others told her that they loved it.
When the person above her saw it, they asked where she had gotten an Expo marker from. Euphoria said that she had brought it from home. The person above her didn't say anything else, but that wasn't the end of it.
"And I know she felt some type of way about me doing that little thing, because the next day when I wrote my quote, she wiped it off in the morning and wrote a nasty message about inventory on it," Euphoria says.
Euphoria explains that when she started, her manager was bullying her other coworkers, but that Euphoria wouldn't tolerate it. Pushing back like that made her manager angrier. She was searching for reasons, Euphoria says in the video.
After the nails argument, her manager gave her a piece of paper that was between her and HR about the woman who unknowingly approved French tips.
"You put the conversation of you and HR. The woman who unknowingly approved my French tips, you put her conversation in here, too. So now I have to go to HR. I emailed HR. Actually, she's not in the office, but I'm about to pull up, because, annoyingly, I have your side of the conversation now where you're saying, oh, maybe she forgot, or if she uses the excuse of nobody told her, maybe remind her of the policy. She definitely got told about the policies. No, I didn't. The problem is, you told me one thing when the rules might have been this, and now somebody's trying to cover their behind, which is unfair to me," she says.
"I told HR on the email, go ahead and let them know I'm not coming to work tomorrow, 'cause I don't have the funds to redo them. I'm out $140 cause I changed them from the French tip to go to this. I'm not doing it again," she says.
TikTok users urged her to be cautious and offered her advice
"Ask for it in writing, specifically official writing, like from a handbook, specifically the employee handbook," one user said.
Other lunch ladies urged her to look into local policies, with one saying, "Lunch lady here! Check with your local health department. See what there policies are. I just found out I can wear nail polish!"
Multiple comments tried to steer her away from turning to HR, stating that HR is there for the company, not the workers.
"HR is there to protect the company not the employee. Don't do it girl," one commenter said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Euphoria (@euphoriafaith) for additional comment. The claims in this story are based on her TikTok video.
