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!