Wear you uniform to work day - Fri 25 Jun 2010

[Good Egg]

Friday 25 June 2010 is 'Wear Your Uniform to Work Day' for British Reservists and pre-service Cadets - part of the Armed Forces Day celebrations on 26th.

Some Scottish Reservists will be wearing their kilts so I'm stretching it a bit and starting a thread about it.

Its entirely voluntary and has to have the approval of the employer. Last year there were burger flippers and refuse operatives as well as MDs.

Given that wearing kilts to work and employers reactions is a perennial topic on X-Marks I wondered what you would think of reservists coming to work in uniform.

[Chas]

I think it is a great idea. I will be wearing my Veterans badge on the day.

Regards

Chas
Q8089960 - RAF Retired

[Sir William]

Excellent! I wish we had something similar here in the States.

Back in the late 80s, I was working for an Army agency and our active duty soldiers wore their undress uniform every day. We got a new deputy director, a brigadier general, who said he wanted the soldiers to wear their combat uniform on Friday. Then he asked (making it optional) our reservists (regardless of service) to do the same. Surprisingly, it was immensely popular and continued until he was promoted and transferred.

[Good Egg]

Excellent! I wish we had something similar here in the States.

Back in the late 80s, I was working for an Army agency and our active duty soldiers wore their undress uniform every day. We got a new deputy director, a brigadier general, who said he wanted the soldiers to wear their combat uniform on Friday. Then he asked (making it optional) our reservists (regardless of service) to do the same. Surprisingly, it was immensely popular and continued until he was promoted and transferred.

Funnily enough quite a few reservists who work for in Defence have commented that they would not want to either because the fear being mocked by regular counterparts or because there is a major disparity between their military rank and their perceived civilian status.

[Sir William]

Funnily enough quite a few reservists who work for in Defence have commented that they would not want to either because the fear being mocked by regular counterparts or because there is a major disparity between their military rank and their perceived civilian status.

The attitude I saw was just the reverse (though I understand it). The reservists wanted the active duty personnel to see that they weren't just civilians with no understanding of the military. There was some disparity between civilian and military ranks, but overall that was not an issue that I saw.

And, as I noted, this was an option the reservists were free to exercise or ignore as they saw fit. The first time around only a few participated. After two or three times, almost all decided to wear their uniforms, but we did have a few who never participated, probably for the very reason you cited.