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5 reasons why you shouldn’t be forced to wear high heels at work

In case you missed it, the sh**t has hit the fan at Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) all because one of their temp employees wasn’t wearing high heels! That’s right, Nicola Thorp, was sent home without pay because she never had high heels on, apparently flat shoes were not the favoured dress-code. Nicola was given the choice to go and buy high heeled shoes and come back to work wearing them, she declined, and chose the other, to go home without pay.

Wearing high heels all day hurts. Let’s see the men do it all day and watch the colour drain out of their faces as their feet puff up and their toes start buckling!

Here are 5 reasons why you shouldn’t be forced to wear high heels at work

They Slow You Down

Try running for a bus in high heels! There’s no point; you’ll still miss it, running for a bus in high heels is impossible. So, you miss the bus; you get into work, are they going to be happy that you’ve still got your high heels on or are they going to be annoyed that you’re late? If the company you work for is on a large scale, then the recommendation is to put some heelys into your handbag. When no-one is looking do a quick changeover so, you can catch up on time lost during the day due to your high heels.

Backaches

Wearing high heels isn’t going to give everyone a back ache but they can and do contribute to sore backs for many people. Back aches are one of the top reasons why people take time off work and one of the top reasons for visiting the doctor. Employers should look at ways to safeguard their employees against back aches not forcing them to wear shoes which could be a contributor of absenteeism.

High heels push the body forward and unevenly distributes the body weight resulting in back pain.

Sore feet

Puffy feet, swollen ankles, hard skin, buckled toes, ingrown toenails, burning feet balls (Metatarsalgia), heel pain, blisters, bunions and more, sounds lovely doesn’t it! How can anyone concentrate on their job when they’re in agony from aching feet? Your feet have to carry you all day, be cruel to them and they will soon let you know! Any job where you have to stand regularly should come with a chiropodist service; M&S are well known for such a benefit

Accidents

High heels = accidents, it’s inevitable! At any moment, one of those heels could give way and before you know it you’re a crumbling wreck on the floor. The floor could be too slippery, a pebble could get in the way, a heel could break, or my favourite, one heel gets stuck in a grid and you literally end up in the splits, which receives a round of applause from impressed work colleagues. Surely for health and safety, high heels should be banned!

Sexist

Women being forced to wear high heels is sexist. If a woman can do the job just as well as, or better in flatter shoes then what is the reason behind a woman being told she has to wear high heels?

Years ago men also wore high heels but by 1740 men had abandoned them because they were foolish and impractical. Wearing high heels should be a choice and that goes for men and women!

Please note that PwC said that high heels for women isn’t one of their dress code policies, they outsource reception duties to a third-party supplier, Portico and it’s their dress code policy.

Portico have now said "With immediate effect all our female colleagues can wear plain flat shoes". Hooray!

Sign the petition to make it illegal to force women to wear high heels at work

JOIN Jobhop and spread the word.

Julie Bishop Jobhop.co.uk

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