Hi! Welcome to my website! I'm Alyssa 😊
Tattoos
I love tattoos and find them fascinating as a form of art. Being in professional settings, I notice few people have visible tattoos showing. I have many tattoos including ones that I cannot cover on my hands.
The discrepancy between myself and others in professional settings has gotten me interested in studying tattoos in the workplace to better understand the reality of being a tattooed employee or leader. My current research focuses on this topic, namely how employees perceive and behave towards colleagues (coworkers and leaders) with tattoos.
Considering tattoos in the workplace, on the one hand, I hear from older adults that tattoo placement is essential because visible tattoos can be an employment liability. On the other hand, younger adults tend to say that tattoos do not affect employment anymore.
On my blog, I share findings from existing research on tattoos in the workplace and will share my own findings as my research progresses.
Safety
I am passionate about workplace safety in my research and my personal life. This passion developed from my dad's tragic death in a workplace safety incident when I was 11 years old. If you want to read more about my story, please visit my About page.
On this site, I share knowledge on safety at work that I have gained from my personal experiences and research (see publications and research pages). Also, visit my blog, where I share workplace safety insights from research.
Contact Info
If you would like to contact me directly to chat and learn more or collaborate, please fill out the contact form at the bottom of this page. Alternatively, you can contact me via email or social media (i.e., LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook).
Education
2021-2025
PhD in Management
Organizational Behaviour
Smith School of Business, Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Supervised by Dr. Julian Barling, I will be investigating perceptions of leaders with visible tattoos and whether this leads to subtle discrimination from employees towards leaders.
2020-2021
Smith School of Business, Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Supervised by Dr. Julian Barling, I studied the impact of parental work injuries on children, namely how these experiences affect later leader emergence. My thesis was titled "Parents' Work Injuries and Children's Later Leader Emergence". Click here for more information on my Master's thesis.
MSc in Management
Organizational Behaviour
2015-2020
BSc (First Class Honours) in Pyschology
Minor in Sociology
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I focused on Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology.
My honours thesis, titled "Support for Safety from Different Sources Predicts Safety Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Job-Related Affective Well-Being", was supervised by Dr. Nick Turner from the Haskayne School of Business, who is an adjunct in the Psychology Department. Click here for more information on my honours thesis.
Current Research
I am currently interested in and researching...
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Perceptions of coworkers and leaders with visible tattoos
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Stigma towards tattooed leaders
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Possible positive perceptions of tattooed workers
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Tattoo content relating to differences in perceptions and treatment of tattooed workers
Please reach out to me if you are interested in chatting about my research to learn more or if you are interested in collaborating!
And check out my blog for posts about my research and the research of others in workplace safety and tattoos at work!
I have taken a break from workplace safety research, but I have done research on...
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​How and why safety-specific leadership behaviours develop
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The ways in which parental work injuries during childhood impact children into adulthood and affect their work
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The impact of personally being injured at work or having a family member (e.g., parent, spouse/partner, or child) or close friend injured at work
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Outcomes for parents of adult children injured at work
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Various leadership styles/types/behaviours and workplace safety outcomes (e.g., safety behaviours, injuries)
I also think it is important to recognize the widespread impact of every work injury and fatality. We need to consider how workplace safety incidents affect leaders, such as direct supervisors, particularly the psychological impact these events have on leaders and how they can be supported through this.