Iconic golf membership sacks lady over tattoos ‘quarter-hour’ into first day in new job

Abbie Foote claims she was dismissed from one of the world’s most iconic golf clubs after just 15 minutes due to her visible tattoos — despite having openly displayed them at her interview

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A woman claims she was sacked just 15 minutes into her first day working at an iconic golf club due to her tattoos – despite having attended an in-person interview.

Abbie Foote, 25, alleges she openly displayed her tattoos on her arms and neck throughout her final interview at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland, one of the venues in the Open Championship rotation, which has hosted golf’s oldest major on eight occasions , most recently in 2018.

But the retail worker claims that when she turned up for her first shift she was sent packing almost immediately, completely unaware that her body art would cause such issues on her first day. After venting her frustration online, the striking clip racked up nearly 900,0-00 views.

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Abbie, from Carnoustie, said: “I had no idea that the addition to my neck would be an issue considering I previously worked with them and re-interviewed showcasing my throat and arm tattoos.

“It is an old school saying that face, neck, and hand tattoos are called ‘job stoppers’. I began my first day and was quickly, 15 minutes into my shift, pulled aside by HR to get told I was getting dismissed and it’s due to my tattoos.”

Abbie had previously worked at Carnoustie Golf Links, which has four courses – the historic Championship Course, the Burnside Course, the Buddon Links Course and a free-to-play short, five-hole course called The Nestie – for a summer season in 2024. She had tattoos then, but not the latest addition to her neck, which she had done on April 19, reports the Mirror.

After re-interviewing on April 17 this year, with her ink on show, she received a contract of employment on April 21, ahead of her first day a week later on April 28.

The shift began like any other, with her greeting former colleagues before heading off to collect her new uniform – until she says HR intervened, when the HR manager requested a brief “catch up”, which turned out to be Abbie’s termination.

She said: “I follow her to the meeting room and she says ‘I hate to be the one to tell you this, it isn’t something I want to have to address, but it’s about uniform’. I told her ‘oh, I just haven’t picked up my shirt from the office yet’ and she said ‘no it’s’ and gestured to my body.

“I replied ‘Wait. The tattoos?’ in shock, ‘but I have worked here before with my throat and other visible tattoos. And I re-interviewed under two weeks ago’. She proceeds to tell me that the new buyer doesn’t agree with visible tattoos.”

Utterly stunned, Abbie said she attempted to defend herself by highlighting that other colleagues also had visible body art. She also explained how she pleaded with the HR manager that she would wear a zip-up uniform to conceal them during work hours.

The bombshell left her reeling after she had just quit her previous role to return to the company – from which she was now allegedly being sacked.

Abbie said: “I got upset and told her I just left my other job for this, have signed my new contracts and there was nothing about this in the contract or handbook mentioning anything about tattoos – only piercings.

“She said that she is sorry for the inconvenience but it was their fault and that I shouldn’t have even gotten past the interview process. “I took five minutes in the room as I was upset about being newly unemployed. I ignored her request to gather my stuff and leave as soon as possible and went to tell my colleagues what had happened.

“Every one of them was shocked and couldn’t believe it was happening. My colleagues even went further and came with me to go speak to others in the office to make any sense of it. None of them agreed with this happening and told me to gather all evidence and reasoning for my dismissal.”

Soon after, Abbie said her team leader arrived at the workplace and recorded everything that had been discussed during the dismissal meeting. She alleges that he even confessed to being “oblivious” to this “unofficial” policy alteration implemented by the new owner.

Following her termination, Abbie demanded written confirmation to fully grasp why she had lost her job. She alleged: “I got the email the following night at 9.28pm with the reasoning that there ‘was an internal error in progressing your application for a customer-facing role without fully considering our uniform policy.

“As discussed, our policy does not permit visible full skin coverage tattoos that cannot be fully covered in customer-facing positions’, again this does not exist in any written policy and every other staff member was unaware of this.

“I was stunned and truly couldn’t believe it was real. I have never been treated unfairly due to my tattoos by an employer and my mind was racing thinking about how I now have no income in this economy.”

After her sacking, Abbie was handed a week’s wages which, given her part-time contract, worked out at merely three days’ pay. She said: “Of course I accepted as it was their error and I have no future income – but best believe I won’t be accepting it on the terms of ‘hush money’.”

Carnoustie Golf Links was approached for a comment.