A Little Help Please. Kilts at Work Research

[Fearnest]

Ron (and everyone else) -

I'm the training manager for six career fields in the National Park Service and work at one of our training centers. I frequently wear a kilt on "casual Friday" when the uniform isn't required (in fact, I started wearing my kilt to work because some staff members didn't feel I was dressing casually enough on "casual Friday" - when I wear a long-sleeved shirt I tend to wear a tie and that caused some raised hackles).

Anyway, I had no kilt problems with my supervisor or senior manager (GS 14/15 level) - in fact they both encouraged it, but both have recently retired - so I'm waiting to see if their successors have any issues with my attire. Nothing has popped up yet, and our uniform policy/dress code isn't real specific for civilian clothing (other than to say "jeans are out unless you're going to be doing physical labor and getting dirty"). Clients (internal and external), students in the classroom, general public in and around the park and most staff members have been OK with it (after the "why is John wearing a kilt?" questions amongst themselves initially).

There are a few staff members with lingering issues just below the surface - typically "oh, you're wearing your skirt again" kind of thing trying to get a rise out of me (it hasn't worked in two years, why would it work now?), but there's one who feels he's been unduly chastised for wearing the wrong uniform during the week (field uniform, when the dress uniform is appropriate for wear in the office) - he thinks that the field uniform is more formal than a Matt Newsome 4 yard box pleated 16 ounce wool kilt. Well, there's no accounting for some taste, and opinions are like the "fourth point of contact" (a nod and a wink to my fellow paratroopers), everybody has one.

So I do get occasional sidelong glances at work, but more often than not (especially when dealing with folks from outside the center) those turn into opportunities to break the ice, talk, and do some networking/relationship building/partnering, etc.

Hope that helps a bit!

[Frog]

I've been wearing Utilikilts for almost a year, sometimes to work - depends on what I'm doing. I work in behavioral intervention with kids from 3 thru 21 years of age, and it occasionally gets physical, whether doing a restraint or providing sensory input for kids with autism or sensory integration difficulties. When it comes to this job, I'll wear a kilt for paperwork days or special events; I won't wear it when I expect to be doing a restraint, climbing playground equipment with younger kids, and haven't made up my mind about junior high settings where it could be a serious distraction in classes with kids with high levels of defiant, aggressive or oppositional behavior for whom I'm not directly responsible. I also work as a dog trainer, and don't mind wearing a kilt as long as I know I'm not working with an aggressive animal. One place I work (with dogs) requires all staff to wear pants or knee-length shorts of particular colors while working, otherwise, it's pretty much common sense and what one is comfortable in the way of FRIENDLY teasing from peers.

Occasionally I've gotten questions from parents of children, but no negative comments; a couple of kids have zinged me as well, not always in a friendly or appropriate fashion - that's the chance you take with these kids, whether you're kilted, overweight, bald, or otherwise apart in appearance - for me, it's often about being the only man in a field dominated by women in my area. You take the good with the occasional bad and keep on keepin' on.

Frog

[Robin]

I'm self employed and my customers wear kilts also, so no eyebrows raised.

I'm probably of no use for your research

[ConfusedPollock]

I work in a decent sized machine shop. I've worn my trusty SWK Blackwatch Economy many times, it gets a lot of wear time. That and the 2 camo and 1 brown twill I made. I got a good bit of grief in the beginning from co-workers but anymore they all have gotten used to it. I'm more comfortable in them. The shop owner gets a huge kick out of it and has no problem with it at all. I saw in another post about the light weight of the SWK acrylic material. I think its just fine. Especially in the summer in a shop.

One guy gets a big kick out of it all. He asks if I "feel a lil constricted" whenever I wear pants. I'm tryin to get him to give them a try. No luck yet. I'm trying to convert others but not too much luck yet. One would like a "paintball" kilt though.

Granted I work 3rd and if they brought customers through I might get a lil warning on not to wear it on those days. Then again we have a lot of heavily tattooed guys there.