Jobs With Hats

Jobs that have hats associated with them:

• Policemen - peaked caps
• Rangers - campaign hats
• Firemen - helmets
• Construction workers - hard hats
• Conductors conductor cap (which is like a peaked cap I suppose)
• Chefs - toque
• Cowboys - cowboy hat

You get the point. Some careers are known of their hats. The last time you thought of a matador a montera probably popped into your head. My career choice has no hat and that sucks. Though I can't imagine what it would be. A beret? No, too snooty. A straw boater? Neat, but no just doesn't make a lick of sense. A fedora is the most logical choice but also cliche. I think I'm stuck with a just baseball cap. . . sigh.

Hats let people you know business. They say "Hey, I know enough about the thing that this hat is related to that I wore the freaking hat!" They project authority. Think about airline pilots; their hats let you know they are in charge (of your life!) Heck, carry something career specific in your hand (say a red cape) and you can ask anyone to do anything. I have a few clipboards in my office for this very reason.

We have an active construction area were I work and I have to walk it frequently. That means I have to wear a hard hat ("Safety First") and I couldn't be happier. About 2 years ago we had our first construction project and we needed hard hats for the staff. I went down to Home Depot to score eight of them. They had a few different types but the average-Joe hard hat (the one with the visor in the front) was the cheapest. Personally I wanted one with the brim all the way around. It looked very 40's and looked a bit like a pith helmet. It was pretty awesome. But it was a bit more expensive and to purchase one different than everyone else's would be vanity. Also at the time it appeared that only supervisors had those kind of hats and I didn't want to upset the natural order of things (this isn't the case).

Thankfully they had only 7 with the peak so I would have to get one of the other styles. I was pretty happy about it. On the way back to work I was wondering if anyone would care or if they wanted the "special" hat. What if someone else coveted it too? I'd have to play it all cool and be like "Eva. It's just a stupid hard hat. Take it." In retrospect this was just dumb. Who the hell cares? No one with any sense.

When I got back I handed out the hats but kept my special hat for me. The one comment on the hat came from a coworker who made an off color joke dealing with a turtle's attraction to that kind of hard hat.

So for the next month or so I'll get to wear a job related hat. Hopfully I won't have to take advantage of all its features. That will mean something has fallen on my head.