Is there such a thing as hardhat etiquette?

July 9, 2008 8:39 PM

Is there such as thing as engineer-vs-craft hardhat etiquette, and if so, what should I expect if I stray outside the lines?

I always see engineers wearing the dome hardhat with the tiny duckbill brim and the craft personnel wearing the full-circumference-brim hats. I never see it the other way around, unless that engineer has also spent at least some time on an active construction project. The field is EHV electrical transmission.

The problem is that I work in a blazing desert region where that full brim would be mighty, mighty nice... but I'm an officey-type engineer who spends maybe a total of fourty hours in the field per year.

I know this should be a no-brainer; wear whatever plastic brain bucket you want. But it seems like the world of the craft personnel is full of traditions, and I want to respect that and not step on any toes. Am I imagining all this, or is there really some sort of unwritten rule?

posted by TheManChild2000 to work & money (20 comments total)

Wear a cap under it. :)
posted by aeschenkarnos at 8:41 PM on July 9, 2008

i've never heard of any tradition like this, but then in every shop i've ever worked in, everyone from the lowliest wrench monkeys to the head honchos wore the same hardhats (this was all indoors). my guess is that the guys who have to spend a lot of time outdoors get whatever they need to stay as comfortable as possible, and the ones who don't, don't. i may very well be wrong though.

at any rate, you can get an attachable sun shield, if you're worried about it and don't mind looking kinda silly.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 8:57 PM on July 9, 2008

In my experience (in shipyards, not construction), nearly everyone wears the front-billed ones. The all-round bill ones are more rare because that's not the kind they give you, you have to get your own. So I guess it kind of shows that you care that much. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know.

I do know the big status difference is in whether you have a heavy metallic one with a good comfy suspension, or if you have a cheapo plastic one. They give the cheap ones to you just for working there, but someone old has to give you the good kind. (Buying one would be cheating, if you even knew where to get one in the right color)
posted by ctmf at 8:59 PM on July 9, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

I can't answer authoritatively, but in my experience, the style of hard hat is generally indicative of trade (I've mostly only seen the full brim style on steel/iron workers.) Color can also have significance in terms of labor/management. I suppose you could get yourself a Cowboy hat style hard hat.
posted by Morydd at 9:07 PM on July 9, 2008

My experience is that _colour_ is the important thing. Some colours are restricted to specific classifications (bosses usually but plain white is often associated with visitors) but that it varies from place to place which colour. The full brim hats are generally a pain in the ass because they take up more room in your truck/kit and get hooked on more stuff in confined places.

If it was me I'd ask someone wearing a full brim where you could swap for your duck-bill, they'll let you know if it isn't kosher.
posted by Mitheral at 9:34 PM on July 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Engineers/superintendents usually wear white hats, so that's a pretty safe bet. The other colors sometimes mean something (orange is sometimes electricians, yellow is sometimes laborers), but the shape doesn't. Honestly, if you're only on site once a month most tradesmen won't even notice you.

I can't find a pic, but I had a coworker who wore a full-brim kevlar hardhat that was a natural brown color. Looked pretty decent, and it definitely didn't overlap any of the traditional colors. In any case, don't sweat it. 99.9% of construction workers are too busy doing their jobs to care what color hat you're wearing. If by chance you do wear the "wrong" color, most will just assume someone gave you a spare they had lying around.

I've never heard of this, but have spent very little time on construction sites - and have no experience with your industry.

Well then, thanks for stopping by.
posted by electroboy at 10:23 PM on July 9, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

I've only seen full brim hats on linemen EHV types. Any other trade/craft I see wearing the 'standard' hard hats.

A google image search for 'lineman hard hat' brings up a couple of the full-brim hats (that for some reason glow).
posted by jjb at 11:10 PM on July 9, 2008

that should read linemen / EHV types...
posted by jjb at 11:11 PM on July 9, 2008

At the nuclear station where I work, the full circumference brim hardhats are required when working in the switchyard, to deflect falling electrical cables, etc. Elsewhere they are optional, but most people wear the front brim style.
posted by Dorri732 at 3:26 AM on July 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

On the construction sites I visit in the SE USA, I see a mix of full brim and front bill hard hats. All trades represented. There is no discernable pattern. However, I've seen a shift towards the full brim as it provides a bit more shade and protection. There seems to be no pattern for specific trades. Many companies have a signature color or type which makes it easier to identify their workers. My company has a style, so we are identifiable, and I'd think most folks would assume it's a company decision, not a personal statement.

And, when visiting a site for observation, you (and I) stick out like a sore thumb and it's clearly evident that we're not the normal worker, and we don't really need to fit in with a pattern. While I don't want to unnecessarily break a taboo, I'm sure I've done many a vexing thing while at a jobsite, and just don't worry about it.
posted by mightshould at 5:39 AM on July 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

One other thing that occurred to me is that most contractors provide the baseball cap style hardhats to their workers, so what you're seeing could be the result of serious tradesmen buying their own, or a company's decision to provide a certain type.
posted by electroboy at 5:54 AM on July 10, 2008

The full brim helmets are generally used by miners but there really isn't an etiquette that I've heard of and I've been in the business for a few years. There are fashions that sometimes pop up. One I have heard of says that the laborers wear yellow hats and managers/engineers wear white hats.

There are enough types of hardhats available and most everyone wears something different. Seriously I wouldn't worry about it. Wear whatever works best for the job and is comfortable and above all what OSHA requires.
posted by JJ86 at 6:14 AM on July 10, 2008

Seconding white for managers, visitors and others likely to ask questions or walk in front of moving grader without looking. Any other colour for everyone else. Oh, and don't wear one of these unless you can smoke and chew at the same time.
posted by scruss at 7:43 AM on July 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

You really need to ask someone *in your field / at your company*, because nobody knows the culture better than them. It should be pretty easy to bring up. The next time you are in the field, wearing your front-brim nerd style hat, squinting and sweating, ask an experienced lineman where he got his full-brim-real-man hardhat. Then just ask him if he thinks you could 'get away with it' with the proper deference to his position... Either he'll pause and say maybe or he'll say who cares and then you'll know the answer.
posted by zpousman at 7:48 AM on July 10, 2008

In my experience (in shipyards, not construction), nearly everyone wears the front-billed ones. The all-round bill ones are more rare because that's not the kind they give you, you have to get your own. So I guess it kind of shows that you care that much. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know.

I think this is pretty much it. The construction administration guy from my (architects) office has a full-brim hardhat that he'll wear to construction sites in the desert or other really sunny places, just for shade purposes. The thing with him though, is that just about every construction company we work with has given him his own hardhat with his name on it, so if he's visiting a site run by a company we've worked with before he's kind of obligated to wear their hat. He's got quite the collection of hats, and they're all white. Only one of them is a full-brim model, but I think that's just because the companies give their own guys the front-bill type. I have a yellow front-bill hat, and I've never gotten flack for it when wearing it around, so I don't think tradesmen really pay all that much attention to your hat as long as it's within the realm of "standard" hardhat looks.

On one jobsite of ours, the construction company had a special collection of pink hardhats for visitors to the site who didn't bring their own. Those were obviously outside the standard realm and meant to make you stand out; unfortunately in a sort of misogynistic sort of way.
posted by LionIndex at 7:50 AM on July 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Also, unless there's a regional difference in customs, I don't think the color of the hat matters. Everybody on sites I've been to wears a white hat, unless they've got their own special one that's been painted like a football helmet or whatever.
posted by LionIndex at 7:55 AM on July 10, 2008

I would like to second zpousman's point; if there's some unwritten rule where you work, the people where you work are much more likely to know than the metafilter hive mind. We can only speak to our own experiences.

Myself, I'm an engineer who has worked as a controls technician. I have always thought of the duckbill hats as those belonging to people who work in the office, and the full brim ones as ones belonging to those who work in the field. I assumed that people wearing the full brim ones might get slightly more acceptance than the duckbill ones for that reason, and always strove to wear a full brim hard hat. Sort of like those politicians who go bowling or drink beer to show how "in touch" they are with the common man, albeit on a much more modest scale. No one ever mentioned the type of hat I was wearing and I never noticed a change in behavior from workers based on which hat I was wearing.

Plus, the full brim ones give more shade.
posted by zompus at 2:18 PM on July 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

White used to be managers/engineers/superintendants, and "safety guys".
Just FYI, stickers or paint used to be an OSHA violation, because it could hide cracks.
I think OSHA is all but gone, (along with safety guys) but it's just something to think about.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 6:10 AM on July 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Clicked too fast.
It's a good idea to have a different color of some kind if you don't hang out on jobs much, because they'll try to keep you from getting killed. (It slows down the job.)
posted by unrepentanthippie at 6:12 AM on July 11, 2008

Ok, good and interesting stuff here but it's pretty clear this is one of those case-by-case-basis things. I'll figure out who to ask in my org to make sure I'm not stepping on any toes.
posted by TheManChild2000 at 6:55 AM on July 11, 2008