Why wear the monkey suit?

mshunter said:
Because in an evac on a taxi way or runway, they are looking for the uniform for direction. It's a symbol of knowledge. "He's a pilet, he must know something."

In the 135/91 world, you have so few people back there, it's easy. You watched them all get on, and they all watched you as they got on. But when you have 60 back there, 59 if them never paid attention to who was up front when they boarded. The only one who is 6 years old, and in awe.
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Thankfully it's really only in sim land but during an emergency and there's time for a PA I always say something along the lines of "please follow all instructions by uniformed crew members." What if we don't have a traditional uniform like the PAX would assume? Do we really need the extra hassle of saying "BTW here at Comfort Air, we wear PJs and Slippers, the Captain wears Camo and the FO wears polka dots. We will both have dunce caps on when out of the airplane so please look for those. Buckle up!"
 
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Cptnchia said:
you guys seem to think
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I genuinely can't decide whether you're conflating what I typed with what other people typed or just deliberately creating a straw man. None of this has anything to do with refusing to wear a company required uniform, and I have a damned hard time figuring out where you get the idea that it does. As I (and I think others) have gone to great pains to state again and again, I'll wear whatever the company asks me to wear, up to and including a clown nose and bit (remember Beavis as a reindeer?), or I won't take the job. I already dress up like a bible salesman every day, so Napoleonic Admiral would actually be a step up, and I would be delighted to one day strut around ATL smoking a fake pipe and pretending I'm at the helm of the Dixie Queen. But none of that has anything to do with having a rational, non-emotive discussion of WHY companies ask us to wear an outfit that, as near as I can tell, has no sensible purpose. A flight suit is at least as identifiable as (and in a dark, burning aircraft fuselage, I would argue more identifiable than) the monkey suit, and it has the added benefit of not melting in to your skin because of said fire. So, what other virtue does the Napoleon Ensemble have?

ATN_Pilot said:
Plenty of rational reasons have been provided.
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Oh, indeed? Would it be an imposition to ask you to reiterate?

 
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I work outside of aviation. Typically, we wear business casual when dealing with customers. (I'm working from home today, which means sweatpants and a torn t-shirt. God help me if our video conferencing product goes mainstream)

But I sometimes work tradeshows, and then I have to wear the uniform. And I do it because they want that. It's garish. Don't like it. But I wear it.

If they came to me tomorrow and said, "Bill, as part of your job, you have to wear this uniform because we think it makes you better at your job," well, that's fine. I may not agree. May not like the uniform. But I'll do it because I subscribe to the following theory:

NEGSMASTYCMMOOT!

(pronounced - "neg-smast-eek-moot")

It means, "Never get so mad at someone that you can't make money off of them."
 
*counts to ten*.

Billiam, why are we still talking about whether or not one ought to wear what they're told to wear? YES, AGREED, WEAR THE UNIFORM, TOE THE LINE, COOPERATE AND GRADUATE, etc etc etc.

Saying these things, believing them, living them does not make the uniform any more rational
 
Boris Badenov said:
I genuinely can't decide whether you're conflating what I typed with what other people typed or just deliberately creating a straw man. None of this has anything to do with refusing to wear a company required uniform, and I have a damned hard time figuring out where you get the idea that it does. As I (and I think others) have gone to great pains to state again and again, I'll wear whatever the company asks me to wear, up to and including a clown nose and bit (remember Beavis as a reindeer?), or I won't take the job. I already dress up like a bible salesman every day, so Napoleonic Admiral would actually be a step up, and I would be delighted to one day strut around ATL smoking a fake pipe and pretending I'm at the helm of the Dixie Queen. But none of that has anything to do with having a rational, non-emotive discussion of WHY companies ask us to wear an outfit that, as near as I can tell, has no sensible purpose. A flight suit is at least as identifiable as (and in a dark, burning aircraft fuselage, I would argue more identifiable than) the monkey suit, and it has the added benefit of not melting in to your skin because of said fire. So, what other virtue does the Napoleon Ensemble have?



Oh, indeed? Would it be an imposition to ask you to reiterate?

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I was going to say something to this effect but you did it much more eloquently.

It's hot in the summer, cold in the winter, the white shirt stains easily, the shoes get scuffed, buttons fall off the coat, and who really likes taking time out of their too short overnight to make sure it looks presentable in the morning?

You wear it because the company says so, not because of some ludicrous notion that you can fly a smoother ils than if you were wearing a flight suit or heaven forbid, blue jeans.
 
Roger Roger said:
I was going to say something to this effect but you did it much more eloquently.

It's hot in the summer, cold in the winter, the white shirt stains easily, the shoes get scuffed, buttons fall off the coat, and who really likes taking time out of their too short overnight to make sure it looks presentable in the morning?

You wear it because the company says so, not because of some ludicrous notion that you can fly a smoother ils than if you were wearing a flight suit or heaven forbid, blue jeans.
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That's what magical underwear is for.
 
Boris Badenov said:
I But none of that has anything to do with having a rational, non-emotive discussion of WHY companies ask us to wear an outfit that, as near as I can tell, has no sensible purpose. A flight suit is at least as identifiable as (and in a dark, burning aircraft fuselage, I would argue more identifiable than) the monkey suit, and it has the added benefit of not melting in to your skin because of said fire.
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OK, how about this. Why wear it? Because management has decreed it be worn. Why did they decree it be worn? Who knows or cares. It's their show. Sometime in the dim distant past, someone thought it was a good idea. They still seem to think so. We regularly get memos from marketing about how the HVCs like to see the uniform, ergo, we wear them. It's sensible to the guys who sign the paycheck, so there's your answer.

As for melting uniforms, only a fool wears plastic clothes in an airplane. Cotton shirt, socks, underwear, wool pants, and leather shoes. What's to melt?
 
Boris Badenov said:
*counts to ten*.

Billiam, why are we still talking about whether or not one ought to wear what they're told to wear? YES, AGREED, WEAR THE UNIFORM, TOE THE LINE, COOPERATE AND GRADUATE, etc etc etc.

Saying these things, believing them, living them does not make the uniform any more rational
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It's rational to the people signing the paychecks. That's the point. It's just not rational to you.

But you don't get to make those decisions. Doesn't MATTER if it makes sense.
 
Cptnchia said:
Why did they decree it be worn? Who knows or cares. It's their show.
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It is their show, absolutely, and again. And again. And again. Obviously, some of us don't know and do care and want to talk about it. If you're not interested, I can 100% understand that. It's a fruitless discussion, nothing is going to change, and most people would probably regard it as a waste of time. But, you know, to each their own, and the fact that you're not interested in discussing the irrationality of the costume isn't grounds to construct some fantasy where saying "Hey, this costume is kind of out of date and stupid" equals "I'm not going to wear your stupid, out of date costume, Mr. Man!"

As for melting uniforms, only a fool wears plastic clothes in an airplane. Cotton shirt, socks, underwear, wool pants, and leather shoes. What's to melt?
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Fair point. They burn rather a lot better than Nomex, though, don't they?
 
I don't know why this is so difficult to understand for an otherwise intelligent individual: Nomex is not universally identifiable as the uniform of the HMFIC of an airliner. What you refer to as a "monkey suit" or "costume" is. Therefore, wear the f'n thing and shut up about it.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Therefore, wear the f'n thing and shut up about it.
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I do wear the f'n thing. With a jaunty tune on my lips and a smile in my heart. But why should I shut up about it? Why is it so infuriating to you people when it's pointed out that your work clothes are kind of silly?
 
Boris Badenov said:
I do wear the f'n thing. With a jaunty tune on my lips and a smile in my heart. But why should I shut up about it? Why is it so infuriating to you people when it's pointed out that your work clothes are kind of silly?
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Why does it bother you so much that we don't care if our work clothes are kind of silly? I wasn't aware the Sartorial Police were on JC.
 
Boris Badenov said:
I do wear the f'n thing. With a jaunty tune on my lips and a smile in my heart. But why should I shut up about it? Why is it so infuriating to you people when it's pointed out that your work clothes are kind of silly?
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First, they aren't my work clothes. I wear a sport coat or blazer to the office nowadays. Second, it's already been explained to you half a dozen times that this is a safety issue. You're just too stubborn to accept reality because you apparently have a Nomex fetish.
 
You guys have it easy, what if your organization decided to mandate safety glasses, hard hats and fall protection if you're more than four feet above the floor with a zero tolerance policy on top of a uniform? I can tell you what I did, I found a new job.
 
Why paint airplanes? Because the owner of the jet wants it to look a certain way for their own reasons.

Why wear a uniform? Because the owner of the jets that I want to buy wants to uphold a corporate image for their own reasons and will pay me attractively to do it.

They hand me a profit sharing check every quarter (or is it twice yearly, I can't remember), they seem to really want to stay in business and be profitable and things are going well.

Questioning the superficial is kind of pointless as bossman says "do it", it's reasonable, prudent and whatever amount of hocus pocus they believe in is making billions.

The new U Boat Commander who is probably reading this thread knows that I will strangle him if he looks like a slob when he gets out of indoc! :)
 
Boris Badenov said:
Reason is not dependent upon perspective. This is the essence of the notion of reason, it's what the word means.
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I know. Winding you up is fun, though. :)

I get the point, too. The clothes don't improve/detract from one's ability to operate an aviation appliance - I totally agree with you. There are so many other things worth expending your considerable talents on, though.

Like defending how inferior MU-2 pilots are.

/duck
 
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