A Little Help Please. Kilts at Work Research

[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.

[McMurdo]

We had a meeting yesterday in regards to Harrasement in the workplace, some of the things the company does not want empolyees to feel bothered about is your ethnicity or the way you dress, well I was very happy to hear that. Of course I thought about this post, I will find you the exact wording and reasoning behind it when I have a chance.

[JayFilomena]

I had an incident during my brief time with Starbucks. The woman actually complaind to the manager that I called her "My Lady" when I served her her drink. My manager told the girl that the complaint was the silliest she had ever herd. The complaintent then went on to say something about my kilt. The manager informed her, that the women are allowed to wear skirts, and Star bucks does not discriminate. The dress code is unisex. I did not last long at StarBucks, but that was for reasons other then the kilt.

[Perldog007]

My second day wearing my UK original to work in a warehouse. Unlike the other poster, I don't have to "go up" on lifts or ladders. As an act of kindness I wear shorts or pants during times I am expected to stand on a loading dock and issue gear to chaps standing below.

I work in Denton Md. Where nobody wears a kilt unless the are playing pipes.

Some folks seem to be uncomfortable around a man in a kilt. In the case of men, this newbie would venture to speculate some kind of insecurity or lingering traumatic memory.

If your CEO is one of these you may have a tough row to hoe. As a former seller of cars, you can't close 'em all.

In mine own case, I let everyone know that I would be wearing a kilt and gave them ample time to joke, gossip, etc before I actually wore it to work. I am not wearing it every day all the time (yet).

I try to be understanding with those that have issues. Just because it is in their head doesn't mean it isn't real to them.

In the case of this poster, my coworkers know about lingering injuries that are prone to infection and in fact put me down for a couple of weeks last year. That helps when I talk about the health benefits.

At the end of the day if they can be sold that their acceptance is of greater benefit to them than their fears, those fears will be banished.

For dealing with my fundamentalist immediate supervisor, the articles on this site were helpful. When she understood that her presumed religious objections would have to apply to her own wearing of pants, she started to come around.

Since her boss supports my license to kilt her objections are somewhat irrelevant. Still, working with her may prevent other problems down the road.

A good Irish-American lady who is a coworker helped me out with another supervisor outside my chain who has issues. She is feisty and sharp of wit and word. Her riposte cannot be posted in a family friendly forum.

That gentleman seems to be getting over it gradually. It probably helps that I don't wear it all the time right off the bat.

In the case of dealing with this man, I endeavor to ensure that my level of service to his technicians more than makes up for any temporary discomfort he is feeling.

I have no illusions though. A change in management or somebody up the chain deciding to exercise leadership and I will be in the same situation you are.

The old "unprofessional" catch all is usually a red flag for some sort of prohibited bias. The question is; "Is this the battle I want to fight?". It sounds like you do and I wish you well.

In my own case, I would take such a situation as a sign from above to seek other employment.

Best of Luck,

Doug

[Raptor]

I'm self-employed, & luckily I work in an industry where I'm almost expected to be a "character", so I dont encounter problems at all.

Actually the only negative was from an employee's wife: "Oh, it WAS you..." "What was?" "I just said to Geoff: I just saw a guy in a dress". I answered "it's not... it's a kilt". "Oh. What do Scottish women wear then?" Jeans mostly, it's a bit cold over there!"

[Harold]

I wish I could but I work for the Belgian Railroads so we have to wear a uniform. Usual sexist presumptions apply of course, women being able to chose between pants and skirts, hats or kepies and men not.

Personally I think our uniform would look mightily sharp with a kilt and a nice kilt jacket.

this is what we wear:

[Clockwork John]

I work in Education. Specifically, I work with mild to moderately disabled special education students. I've only owned a kilt for about two months, but I've already worn it to work about half a dozen times. I've gotten a great response from my colleagues, and my boss only had one concern about me being kilted-- was I wearing it the traditional way. I assured him I would "dress appropriately for work,"and that was the end of it.

My students, on the other hand... in addition to being a bit slow on the uptake, they are horribly uncultured and ignorant. I had to explain what a kilt is, its origins, etc... I even had one kid leave the classroom and go to our on campus detention room because he "felt uncomfortable being in a classroom with a man in a skirt"... when he came back, we had a discussion about different cultures, and about heritage, and I think he's finally starting to get it...

All in all, it's been a good experience wearing my kilt to work.