Where do you work?

[cessna152towser]

I'm semi-retired but work part time as clerk/assessor in the District Court service in Scotland. The job calls for dark clothing and I wear either a navy pinstripe trouser suit or a heavyweight black kilt with black hose and Argyle jacket. While in the courtroom I wear a black court robe over it which is open at the front and ankle length at the back, but the robe comes off when I'm back in the court offices doing the paperwork. I'm kilted on around half of my days at work.

[Riverkilt]

I work as a licensed professional counselor at a mental health agency in a small town in Arizona (dang near Utah we're so far north). My agency's dress code has always been, "Don't make us institute a dress code." Being rural and western, windy and sandy/dusty all the time it's pretty casual here.

About two years ago I started wearing kilts about town. My CEO first saw me in the local hardware store in my UK camo and couldn't stop staring, laughing, trying to tease me. He's 40 something, I'm 61, I stood tall. Then started wearing kilts to work from time to time. Sort of on whim, maybe once a week. Took the expected questions and teasing - a lot of it inappropriate - like an out lesbian therapist asking me what I wore under my kilts, and how I went to the bathroom wearing a kilt. Confronted that politely saying I'd be fired for asking her the same questions about her and her skirts.

One day (August 3, 2005) I just decided that kilts were too comfortable not to wear to work every day. I haven't worn pants since. I mostly sit for a living. I love the comfort.

Dealing with mentally ill and addicted clients I'd expected some flack from them. But all I get are an occasional polite question. I've decorated parts of my office with kilt photos, including a large collage of pics of men in kilts. Lets those that wanna know have an easy way to start a conversation about them. If/when they do, I address it briefly and get on with their therapy.

Being a small town its common to see clients and former clients when I'm out and about kilted. I've noticed many more greetings since I went full time kilted. Guess I'm easier to remeber in a kilt.

I'm one of the lucky ones.

I'm committed to interviewing kilted should I ever change jobs. And working in counseling I'm in an industry that's committed to cultural diversity too.

If I'm in a UK workman's and someone asks me about it I tell them "Scottish jeans." If I'm in a UK mocker I tell them "Scottish Dockers." Makes the cultural ethnic point.

Ron

[Cinnabar]

It's very interesting to see what everyone does and how wearing a kilt is tolerated at your respective places of work.

I'm a postdoctoral research scientist (i.e., I'll be looking for a real job in 1.5 yrs) working for the US federal government. I wore a kilt to work once and it went well. The chief scientist didn't say one word to me about it and in all liklihood it probably doesn't matter what he thinks. Anyway, kilts are not a good choice for work given the amount of time I spend in a lab using acid.

[Hamish]

Work? What's that?!!

OK, OK! I AM retired, and have been for eight years (such bliss!). I was with my last employer for 34 years - initially as Retail Manager at our London West End shop in Jermyn Street and latterly as Company General Manager with special responsibilities for Exports. Being 'Senior Management' there was no way I could have worn a kilt to work (it was pinstripe/chalkstripe three-piece suits for all of those 34 years!).

However, after I took early retirement, our Managing Director asked me if I'd like to help the company out over the very busy Christmas trading period - in the telephone/mail order department!! (Knowing the Company's products intimately, I was a greater asset to them than a temporary agency worker could have been!) Did I baulk at being offered such menial work? Certainly not - it gave me additional pocket money, and did so for the following two Christmases. On a par with the additional cash, being technically self-employed for those short periods, I was able to wear my kilts every day to the office!!

(PS: What was the business? Floris Perfumes - the UK's oldest perfumery house; founded in 1730 and still run by the same family. Perfumers by Royal Appointment to HM The Queen and HRH The Prince of Wales. Our only other shop was on New York's Madison Avenue ........ I wonder if it is still there?)

[Eujeankilt]

I'm a Network Administrator at a community college in western Oregon. Computer geeks are given more leeway in most behavior, so I had few comments when I started wearing kilts to work daily last fall.

Earlier I was chosen to have my picture on our departmental web page and I kicked off my kilt wearing at work by wearing a kilt for the photo shoot. It was supposed to change to a different staff member each term, but I've been up since August. Maybe it's the kilt.

http://www.lanecc.edu/it/

Dale

[Moosehead]

Regional Business Development Officer for both the Maritime and Prairie regions of Canada for a Native Marketing & Publishing company. Work from home, on the damned phone 10 hours a day. I wear whatever I bloody well please. Any wonder why I want to fish lobster and make kilts?

Oh, and ex-Canadian and British Air Force Officer (for the new guys who didn't know that). I was the "pointy" guy, also known as a Navigator or Air Electronics Officer.

[mudd]

I don’t believe that I am allowed to name my employer on this forum, for legal reasons, but I can give you a kind of hint.
I work in R&D for a Corporation that is a spin-off from a piece of what was once the largest telecommunications corporation in the world.
I work in the division of Laboratories that at the time of my hiring were named after a famous Scottish-American by the name of Bell.
I have worn a Kilt to work twice and have gotten no comments at all from management. Unfortunatly, I don’t really feel that the Kilt is going to be vary practical for me as a regular work garment. I carry lots of stuff in my pants pockets like pens, papers, a cell phone, small tools, etc, and the sporran just doesn’t work. Not to mention the fact that I may at any time need to ascend a ladder and crawl around in a cable tray. Although, I may just try my denim UtiliKilt and use Ron MacDonald’s description of “Scottish Jeans” and see how that goes over.

[Moosehead]

I don’t really feel that the Kilt is going to be vary practical for me as a regular work garment.

It happens. When I fly, I would never think of wearing shorts or a kilt. I've been burned before and it ain't fun! And that was wearing full nomex.

[CameronTaylor]

As said previously, I'm a Heavy Equipment operator and fair-skinned so jeans are a requirement for safety and comfort. Having been burned more than once by hydraulic oil and what normal operations does to jeans I will not wear a kilt to work.
Afterward however .....


CT - can you kilt me now? good.

[MacSimoin]

I don’t believe that I am allowed to name my employer on this forum, for legal reasons...

I am, or rather I was, bound by similar stipulations legally enacted by my employer (akin to a cease and desist order). I work[ed] for a foreign company with operations here in the USA but for patent and international copyright reasons, I can say what I do just not who I do it for (ridiculous, I know). Anyway, there's not a snowball's chance in hell that anyone working there could show up kilted, even if they work in the offices; there's a strict employee dress code that some have found [out the hard way] it's unwise to deviate from. Not every employer is 'kilt friendly' and a lot of those that aren't have good reasons for taking that stance (i.e., OSHA and insurance regulations). It's pure fantasy to say or think we all could or should go about our work wearing a kilt but I'll admit it's a nice fancy nonetheless.