If your coworkers aren’t your superiors, it’s their prerogative to not be big fans of you riding around on a unicycle in your pilot’s uniform.
If I were a pilot I wouldn’t wear the uniform to work. I know what a unicyclist is; regular people don’t. It can be seen as reflecting badly on your company.
You mentioned acting “professional.” Does a stock broker ride to work in his three-piece suit? Does a sewer worker ride to work in a haz-mat suit? Notice the question isn’t whether any of them should ride a unicycle to work. Of course they should. I’ve never been to the Keys, but I’ve been to Florida. Unless it’s a short distance and you ride really slow, I can’t imagine you not working up a sweat on your ride to work. Just change when you get there.
Doesn’t matter then. The guy they saw on the unicycle was not at work. The guy at the bottom of the stairs is a pilot for the Continental Connection. The uniform makes the man, even if he’s the same guy!
Does this text include commuting from your own home while arriving or departing your home terminal? Seems to me it allows riding in “riding clothes” when at the home terminal but requires you to be in uniform at other airports. (do you take the uni with you on flights?)
I’d just tell them that it shows determination and perseverance in your personality, just as getting a pilot’s license is (I’ve a (lapsed) general av license, my father was an airline pilot for 30 years for Eastern, and I’ve a brother who is a pilot for Comair).
Or, you could mention that if the US Navy and NASA had no problem with Captain David Brown (Mission specialist on Columbia disaster) having been a circus gymnast, acrobat, stilt-walker, and giraffe unicyclist, then there’s nothing wrong with you riding a uni
Captain David Brown (USN), space shuttle mission specialist, was born in Arlington, Virginia. He was single and had, perhaps, the most colorful life of all the astronauts. He enjoyed flying and bicycle touring. He was a four year collegiate varsity gymnast. While in college he performed in the Circus Kingdom as an acrobat, 7 foot unicyclist and stilt walker.
“I made a decision that is part of my job, I would incur some real risk as a routine part of my job when I joined the Navy and started flying … airplanes off of ships, particularly airplanes off of ships at night. And I think that was a decision that I made some years ago and the decision to go fly in space is just an extension of that.”
After being selected as an astronaut in 1996, this was his first space shuttle flight.
I can see why they are upset with you riding a Torker. You make big bucks and here you are riding a cheapo unicycle. Buy a KH and hopefully that will impress them.
But on a more serious note.
I’ve always been one who dresses according to salary, except in the early days of working in a department store. Now I work primarily with CFO’s, General Counsel, and sometimes CEO’s, of some of the world’s largest companies, such as Continental. I don’t go out to meet the brass much, so I don’t have to dress up–fortunately. But my company has a criteria call “Corporate Citizenship.” This means how well you get along with other colleagues. A popular colleague always has a higher chance of promotion than the most hardworking and/or efficient colleague who fall out of favor of the masses. Thats just the way large companies work.
Part of me wants to tell you to get with the program and be a good corporate slave.
Other part me of me says to get a KH24 and ride it to work because it fits your salary.
A 20" is marginally more efficient than walking- so that is a good reason to use it. Coming from a unicyclist like you John surely you can see the logic in that. Why walk when you can ride. I prefer to look like a unicyclist than a cyclist. I wear high vis gear and no helmet- why wear a helmet if you don’t have to by law? I don’t see how a helmet and mirror would make you look any less kooky, more so if anything.
I ride to work on my 36", but I am a unicycle teacher so nobody looks at me funny, and the children respect me for it I think.
You’re missing the point. A lot of you are missing the point. This is not about riding a unicycle to work as much as it is about wearing a company uniform while riding a unicycle.
The distance between your home and work looks like it’s so short I can see why it would be annoying to change clothes, but if you did it would eliminate your problem. Or just deal with it. You’ll either eventually get a memo or something suggesting you don’t wear the uniform while unicycling, or not. I know nothing of Keys culture, but way at the end of the world like that peoples’ attitudes are probably a little bit different. Be different!
Now try sticking your arms out and making airplane noises while riding on the airport property. See what they think of that!
I’ve heard several times of this happening before. Never to or for anyone I know personally though, as far as they knew or would admit.
Edit: A potential customer’s oppinion of seeing you riding, as I see it can go two ways.
1 “Wow. This guy can ride a unicycle! I bet he’s a great pilot.”
2 “This crazy guy is riding a unicyle! I sure hope I don’t have such a wreckless, crazy pilot.”
There’s a simple solution to that: Don’t go through red lights.
Additional benefits to riding within the law are that you would be setting a good example to the kids at your school and you wouldn’t be one of the scofflaw scumbags who give all cyclists a bad name.
