Walking around the office barefoot

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  • sherrybaby81
    sherrybaby81 Posts: 257 Member
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    Yea I think that is pretty gross. I hate feet in general. I feel that is a safety hazard and can you imagine the germs! I am prone to plantar warts as it is! I bet most people there who do go barefoot all share warts as well!

    In my opinion, the only places feet should be bare are in your own home (or family or friends if they are cool with it and if they don't commonly wear shoes in the house) and the beach. Even at the beach I only go barefoot if I am lying on my towel drying off or getting some sun! I have water shoes for swimming. I have snagged my foot on one too many rocks to go barefoot anymore!
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
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    its unprofessional here (america) because we have culturally decided and agreed upon the unprofessionalness of it. so keep your shoes ON in an american office, please.

    in other countries they take their shoes off whenever they go into a building, so they don't care. in places like that it's considered gross to keep your shoes on. 'over there' they don't get grossed out by feet--they are accepted as a part of life.

    i do as the romans do but i often wish i didn't live in rome. often elsewhere there are better attitudes about things...

    Speak for your own office. I've worked at multiple where shoes were essentially optional, and I've only ever worked in American offices. The general rule is that as long as you're not meeting with clients, the only thing that's really mandatory is that you're wearing clothes.

    I don't generally take my shoes off at work, but that's because I wear Vibrams. Frankly, I don't see much of a difference between barefoot and the barely-passes-for-shoes sandals that the women like to wear. Also - being exposed to germs isn't a bad thing, and if you walk around barefoot enough, that staple on the floor would be a non-issue.
  • angieroo2
    angieroo2 Posts: 973 Member
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    I've done it, but only from my desk to the printer (over one workstation). Any further than that and I put my shoes on. My shoes are always off at my desk. I hate shoes and if I could get away with never wearing them, I would.
  • Mischievous_Rascal
    Mischievous_Rascal Posts: 1,791 Member
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    How unprofessional! Not to mention rude, disrespectful and plain just gross. Ugh.
  • kirk_clawson
    kirk_clawson Posts: 36 Member
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    Wait until its people walking around the office with no pants....
    Guilty. On Fridays. We have no-pants Fridays.
  • elvensnow
    elvensnow Posts: 154 Member
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    They're feet... 99.99% of humans are born with two of them.

    Get over it.

    I'm pretty much with this. I really don't appreciate people getting uppity about stuff that doesn't affect them in the slightest other than "Oh noes it offends my sensibilities". Like maybe if the guy sitting next to you had rancid feet odor, I could see that. But just because the sight of feet is gross to you, no.

    And to those about the bathroom, uh, is there some kind of mysterious benefit about shoes that repels germs that I am not aware of? Unless you wear some kind of magical germ repelling/killing pads around your shoes before you go into the bathroom - whether you track them with your bare feet or with shoes on, you are GOING to get germs on you, your shoes, your feet, up your legs, track down the floor and to your desk. Hell, if you've been to the bathroom lately, even with shoes, you've tracked half the nasties from the bathroom to your desk and are now sitting in it. But good news - as long as you're not licking your feet or rubbing them with your hands before you then turn around and eat something, it's not going to matter!
  • highmaintnance
    highmaintnance Posts: 215 Member
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    I work in a very small office and two of us will on occasion, when it's quiet and there's no chance anyone outside of the office will be in. I would never walk in the bathroom without shoes, though, even though I am the only one who uses this bathroom.

    As for the argument that it's work not my home, well I am here more than I am at home. I can do "homey" things here without looking unprofessional. Not one single person outside of the other three people in my office see them and the other three people in my office are like my family. It's not fair to say all people who go barefoot at work are unprofessional and infer that they are somehow dirty. You don't know me or my office environment.
  • BranMuffin86
    BranMuffin86 Posts: 314 Member
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    I'm at work barefoot right now, but theres only 3 of us here and we all do it. BUT to the bathroom thats nasty shoes are ALWAYS needed in there.
  • sakuragreenlily
    sakuragreenlily Posts: 334 Member
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    In the bathroom... yuck you are not over reacting. In the general offica area? Lighten up.... it's summer, it's a new world now that the traditionalists have passed the torch to the boomers. Just wait until us Gen Xer's are in charge... casual everyday and NO MORE DANG MEETINGS TO DISCUSS EVERYTHING!!!!

    (Said the HR Employee)

    The thing I don't understand about people being upset about no shoes in the bathroom is that it is someone else's feet. Their feet germs aren't going to mix with the bathroom germs and create some sort of super cancer that's going to infect YOU.

    It's like eating food off the ground at public places. I'm not gonna do it, but if you do then why should I care? It's not my job to be everyone's mommy.
  • pinkledoodledoo
    pinkledoodledoo Posts: 290 Member
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    My boss does this in our office but I'm actually happy she does... not because I think she should but because it makes me wearing flip flops look less unacceptable than that! :laugh:
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
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    Yea I think that is pretty gross. I hate feet in general. I feel that is a safety hazard and can you imagine the germs! I am prone to plantar warts as it is! I bet most people there who do go barefoot all share warts as well!

    In my opinion, the only places feet should be bare are in your own home (or family or friends if they are cool with it and if they don't commonly wear shoes in the house) and the beach. Even at the beach I only go barefoot if I am lying on my towel drying off or getting some sun! I have water shoes for swimming. I have snagged my foot on one too many rocks to go barefoot anymore!

    Actually, considering that plantar warts are a fungus, and fungi thrive in dark, damp places, they're probably not "sharing the warts" like you might think. Keeping them in the open deprives the fungus of both dampness and darkness.
  • JaniceH65
    JaniceH65 Posts: 11 Member
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    I'm pretty sure this is a health and safety issue. Do you have a H&S committee in your office? If so, a formal complaint should be in order. Let them investigate and make the decision on what to do.
  • elgray26
    elgray26 Posts: 212 Member
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    Its just my boss and I in our office. I walk around barefoot all the time. I hate shoes!
  • Denjo060
    Denjo060 Posts: 1,008
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    In the bathroom... yuck you are not over reacting. In the general offica area? Lighten up.... it's summer, it's a new world now that the traditionalists have passed the torch to the boomers. Just wait until us Gen Xer's are in charge... casual everyday and NO MORE DANG MEETINGS TO DISCUSS EVERYTHING!!!!

    (Said the HR Employee)




    Yes well said We all do it here too Its a small office but still, except for the bathroom, that is not cool. We also wear shorts and tank tops and flip flops to work too My husband said if you worked for me Id fire you lol Glad I dont work for him hahahaha
  • uneik3
    uneik3 Posts: 68 Member
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    Haha, oh man. And I felt guilty about just slipping off my shoes under my desk, and there's only 1 other person in my office... down the hall. Yeah, that is not okay, especially not to the bathroom.
  • Chadomaniac
    Chadomaniac Posts: 1,785 Member
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    They're feet... 99.99% of humans are born with two of them.

    Get over it.

    THIS

    BTW Female feet are BEAUTIFUL
  • joolywooly33
    joolywooly33 Posts: 421 Member
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    I do it too :blushing:
  • junejadesky
    junejadesky Posts: 524 Member
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    I work in a medium size "corporate" office. In the summer months there seems to be an epidemic of people walking around the office without shoes. Not only around the office, but also to the bathroom and back. I can't stand it !! I hate feet. I have gone to my supservisor but she is one of the offending people.


    What would you do? Am I overreacting? Do people in your office do the same thing?

    Meh... it probably shouldn't bother you so much. It's just feet. It's not like they're walking around naked. Keep your shoes on if it bothers you and ignore it.

    I used to work with a woman who would get all bent out of shape because she couldn't stand that this one girl sat with her legs, up in her chair, crossed. She made a HUGE fuss about it even though it really didn't effect her at all... in the end the girl was told to sit with her feet on the floor and the other woman was happy but everyone just thought the other woman was an insufferable nag.

    You tell that girl to have HR or management show her the policy that states she cannot sit with her legs crossed in her chair. That is just about the stupidest thing I've ever heard... and I work in HR
  • leaellenj
    leaellenj Posts: 38
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    I'm pretty sure it's a healthy/safety violation. You might want to investigate that angle and then present it to your supervisor.

    Plus, going barefoot to the bathroom is just nasty.

    I slip my feet out of my shoes at my desk if I wear heals, but I would never walk around that way.
  • lakishamcquany
    lakishamcquany Posts: 17 Member
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    Guilty as charged!

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