Originally Posted by
dartagnan
I live in St. Louis and work all over the place. I work in factories, where we make things, on the shop floor. There is dirt, dust, metal chips, assorted oils and lubricants, and all sorts of other junk around.
I don't ever wear a suit, except for job interviews. Wearing a suit would be completely counterproductive to my job, plus I'd spend a lot of money on replacement suits. If I showed up in a shirt and tie, even, our shop guys would write me off immediately.
When I fly from A-B, whether in first, business class, or last row of coach, I wear either jeans and a t-shirt/polo shirt, or occasionally shorts if departing Dallas in mid summer. I don't feel bad about this at all.
Not everyone works in an office environment. While I respect people who do, I sometimes empathize with our shop guys who complain about "the suits from corporate." There's another world out there, folks. Most here don't live in it, but that's no reason to pretend it doesn't exist.
I'm like you, if I ever showed up in a shirt and tie at one of my worksites, I'd lose every bit of credibility I might have ever had, plus I'd get laughed at.
I actually kind of enjoy it when folks think I obviously don't belong in business or first class because of what I'm wearing, they're usually the folks that are headed back to coach when they see me. I'm fortunate that almost all of my flying and all of my trans-ocean flying is in fully paid J/C.
As far as what I do wear: golf shirt, t-shirt or docker's style shirt, clean blue jeans with sneakers or maybe even steel toed work shoes if I'm tight on weight. My jacket will be a wind breaker or fleece, depending on destination and time of year.
mpc1