Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

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Big and Bashful
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

Post by Big and Bashful »

I use Farcebook a lot, along with FBP, a useful little add-on to Chrome which removes all the adverts and other unwelcome garbage from Farcebook. I am actually active here at the cafe, on Farcebook and on the YBW forum. Facebook helps me stay in touch with friends and relatives all over the planet now. The YBW forum (Yacht & Boating world or something similar) is a very useful place for sailors to swap knowledge and advice. Due to my line of work, and the high security clearances needed, I keep my skirts away from work and off the other forums, just in case someone spots them and thinks that it makes me a wierdo. On the other hand, I have been openly wearing them (denim skirts anyway) around my village, and around the house, for quite a while now, so sooner or later the 'secret' will be out.
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

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Big and Bashful wrote:Due to my line of work, and the high security clearances needed, I keep my skirts away from work and off the other forums, just in case someone spots them and thinks that it makes me a wierdo. On the other hand, I have been openly wearing them (denim skirts anyway) around my village, and around the house, for quite a while now, so sooner or later the 'secret' will be out.
There is a strong and distinct benefit in this case of being open about the matter as it makes one "blackmail-proof" insomuch as nobody can remotely threaten you with an "outing" which is a powerful tool if you hide the fact you wear skirts. If most of the locals have seen you so attired then there's noting really "weird" about it and the quality of your work should tell the story your employer is interested in.

Depending on what, precisely, it is that you do, skirts might not be a good option at work anyway. For lots of things they're not particularly appropriate; however, for other sorts of things, like office work, they're fine.
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Milfmog
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

Post by Milfmog »

B&B,

I have to agree with Carl on this. In my last job I worked for a company that prints money (literally) for over 150 different countries. They also provide government security documents, (driving licences, passports, voter registration systems etc) for multiple countries, including the UK (No Scottish bank notes that I ever saw though...) I was subject to detailed security clearance checks as a part of the price of working there. (My sanity may have been another part of the price had I stayed much longer...)

During one interview I was asked whether there were any aspects of my life that I was trying to keep unknown to my colleagues, which could conceivably be used to apply pressure to me. I was completely open with the interviewer about my skirt habit and he simply said "Great. If anyone tries to use that to get you to do something inappropriate you simply tell us. We will not spread that information any further, but you now know that reporting the attempt to corrupt you will have no negative consequences for your career."

Over time, most of my colleagues would have learned of my skirting as I did not keep it secret when I was off the clock (skirts would have been inappropriate at work due to moving machinery they could have been caught in.) I met several colleagues for a beer or meal while skirted and apart from some ribbing there was no issue at all. Had I not been open with the security team I’m not sure I would have felt able to be skirted anywhere that colleagues could get to know about it.

In a secure environment, secrecy (other than the officially sanctioned kind) is dangerous; honesty is a far better policy.

Have fun,


Ian.
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Big and Bashful
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

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I agree totally with what you say, however habits are sometimes difficult to change. It is nice to get home after a hard day of being clever and change into a skirt. If I wore skirts to work then I would soon get too used to them and stop noticing the benefits. (Prevarication, yes I know).
As Carl found out, security clearances or not, if you discover the hard way that someone in your management chain thinks skirts are wrong, it can have very significant consequences.
At my security vetting interview I was honest, up to a point. They never asked me about the way I dress, they didn't ask if I was hiding anything from work, if they had I would have told them, but as they didn't I saw no need to discuss my clothing. It is not a secret. I wear them when travelling, at home, when sailing, in many pubs. I choose not to at work, or around my relatives. I am sure that this will change, when I feel ready.
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

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Big and Bashful wrote:As Carl found out, security clearances or not, if you discover the hard way that someone in your management chain thinks skirts are wrong, it can have very significant consequences.
Actually, getting the boot from my previous employer had nothing whatsoever to do with my mode of attire, but rather that the Director of the group I worked for was a borderline (and likely deepening) psychopath. He's had a hand in getting no fewer than six very highly competent, very driven, employees sacked in the past several months -- but, he's a grand-master at manipulating his superiors into thinking he's "doing well" when, in point of fact, he's killing the organization one poor employee at a time. Pretty soon, it'll be him and his tame Little Eichmann. I, and a few of the others, got it in the neck because we were perceived as being a threat to him and he lashed out; one guy is still borderline-suicidal because of the treatment received there. I should have quit the day the last re-org was described; it would have saved me a world of hurt. Skirts were not a part of what happened.

That having been said, being able to draw a nice bright line like that between work and non-work is sometimes useful, and absolutely not to be condemned or even remotely discouraged.

There was one run-in early on, but that resolved itself quite well indeed a couple of days later when the guy who looked askance at me (and who was under a lot of stress at the time, which is why I was called in) came round and commented, "You rocked that look on Saturday!" The other one was a somebody with a hyperactive imagination.

In retrospect, I am very glad to be shot of the old place.
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Big and Bashful
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

Post by Big and Bashful »

crfriend wrote:
Big and Bashful wrote:As Carl found out, security clearances or not, if you discover the hard way that someone in your management chain thinks skirts are wrong, it can have very significant consequences.
Actually, getting the boot from my previous employer had nothing whatsoever to do with my mode of attire, but rather that the Director of the group I worked for was a borderline (and likely deepening) psychopath. He's had a hand in getting no fewer than six very highly competent, very driven, employees sacked in the past several months -- but, he's a grand-master at manipulating his superiors into thinking he's "doing well" when, in point of fact, he's killing the organization one poor employee at a time. Pretty soon, it'll be him and his tame Little Eichmann. I, and a few of the others, got it in the neck because we were perceived as being a threat to him and he lashed out; one guy is still borderline-suicidal because of the treatment received there. I should have quit the day the last re-org was described; it would have saved me a world of hurt. Skirts were not a part of what happened.

That having been said, being able to draw a nice bright line like that between work and non-work is sometimes useful, and absolutely not to be condemned or even remotely discouraged.

There was one run-in early on, but that resolved itself quite well indeed a couple of days later when the guy who looked askance at me (and who was under a lot of stress at the time, which is why I was called in) came round and commented, "You rocked that look on Saturday!" The other one was a somebody with a hyperactive imagination.

In retrospect, I am very glad to be shot of the old place.
Yes, I am glad to see that it all worked out well in the end, by the way. it's a long time since I saw any contribution from Mrs Carl! how is Sapphire?
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

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Big and Bashful wrote:I am glad to see that it all worked out well in the end, by the way. it's a long time since I saw any contribution from Mrs Carl! how is Sapphire?
I knew that I'd land on my feet in the end, but at the same time I also knew it was going to be a long hard slog. Like one of the other guys involved, there was a time in there where suicide was a most definite possibility -- and on some days, perhaps even a probability. I tried to protect Sapphire from the worst of that, and I believe mostly succeeded, but it took an emotional toll on her (How could it not?), and now she's trying to "pull the nose up". Fortunately, spring is just beginning to come 'round -- grudgingly, it seems -- and everybody's spirits should brighten.
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

Post by Big and Bashful »

Good! Best wishes to the both of you now that things are bouncing back!
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

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Big and Bashful wrote:I agree totally with what you say, however habits are sometimes difficult to change. It is nice to get home after a hard day of being clever and change into a skirt. If I wore skirts to work then I would soon get too used to them and stop noticing the benefits. (Prevarication, yes I know).
I'm not sure I would agree that it is prevarication; it is just as likely to be a matter of choice. I don't wear skirts or kilts to work and never have when on the clock (I have in some jobs when working weekends or late evenings on my own (unpaid!) time). I do wear a kilt when travelling for business unless I am travelling with a customer. Although I don't advertise my skirt wearing at work, I don't hide it either and it is fairly well known, as at least two colleagues have seen me skirted out and about.

Carl remarked once, some years ago, that he valued the demarkation between work and personal time that a change of clothes provides and I realised that I also enjoy the clarity brought by a simple change out of the clothes of drudgery into stuff I enjoy wearing. That is not to say that I will never wear a skirt for work, just that I don't choose to try it at present.

Have fun,


Ian.
Do not argue with idiots; they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
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Re: Man with a Mission to wear a Kilt for a year

Post by dillon »

Milfmog wrote:
Big and Bashful wrote:I agree totally with what you say, however habits are sometimes difficult to change. It is nice to get home after a hard day of being clever and change into a skirt. If I wore skirts to work then I would soon get too used to them and stop noticing the benefits. (Prevarication, yes I know).
I'm not sure I would agree that it is prevarication; it is just as likely to be a matter of choice. I don't wear skirts or kilts to work and never have when on the clock (I have in some jobs when working weekends or late evenings on my own (unpaid!) time). I do wear a kilt when travelling for business unless I am travelling with a customer. Although I don't advertise my skirt wearing at work, I don't hide it either and it is fairly well known, as at least two colleagues have seen me skirted out and about.

Carl remarked once, some years ago, that he valued the demarkation between work and personal time that a change of clothes provides and I realised that I also enjoy the clarity brought by a simple change out of the clothes of drudgery into stuff I enjoy wearing. That is not to say that I will never wear a skirt for work, just that I don't choose to try it at present.

Have fun,


Ian.
I think most of us have professional/work-related constraints, as much or more than social/family constraints, on our preferred attire. If not, we would have no need for communion here with our skirted brethren. I cannot dress exactly as I please to work; though there is no written dress code for my job, there are professional expectations. Too, I don't want to spend my time explaining my attire to clients when I have other issues to resolve and assist. Sometimes freedom has to take a back seat to real-life practicalities. I envy those who are in a position where presenting yourself professionally in a skirt doesn't matter to anyone.
As a matter of fact, the sun DOES shine out of my ...
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