Should women be forced to wear high heels at work?

[L.A.]

I would imagine that their legal department are having kittens - if the HSE don't get them the  injury lawyers will.

[Udayana]

Legal or not it is obviously unacceptable for any large company to impose such a dress code. However here  the work is outsourced or sub-contracted to smaller firms who are more willing to take risks, in competition with rivals, to keep the business with the larger firm.

[Rhiannon]

If you didn't like them you could make it stilettos and stamp hard. 

 

Do blokes really say that to women?

I'm not sure a bloke would survive if I walked up his back in a pair of high heels. He'd never walk again, probably.

He'd get laughed at by his mates as they carried him off, for being so daft 

I've had it said to me, Rose. The other thing about heels is that they are hard run in. Like HH says, it's about giving clients a sexual thrill.

[wigginhall]

I think that's right, it's a kind of sexualization of the female body in the workplace.  Well, sexualization is OK if you are party to it, but not on command. 

[ippy]

I've had it said to me, Rose. The other thing about heels is that they are hard run in. Like HH says, it's about giving clients a sexual thrill.

Apparently you can get a much better grip with high heels when you're up a ladder, so I've been told.

ippy

[Rhiannon]

I think that's right, it's a kind of sexualization of the female body in the workplace.  Well, sexualization is OK if you are party to it, but not on command.

Exactly.

[floo]

I think that's right, it's a kind of sexualization of the female body in the workplace.  Well, sexualization is OK if you are party to it, but not on command.

Agreed.

[Jack Knave]

Couldn't believe this was actually a real news item in that it was actually happening in our world today. Thought I was in a time warp and it was April 1st again.

[Hope]

It is interesting, if the papers are to be believed (I read this in today's Metro) that it wasn't the policy of the company that the temporary receptionist was due to work for (Price Coopers Waterhouse) but that of the temp'ing agency who had sent her.  It was also suggested in the Metro report that some lawyers believe that this is already an outlawed policy.

[Brownie]

That explains it Hope.  I didn't know temp agencies still existed, at least not in form they used to!  A blue chip company like Price Waterhouse would not have a 'high heel' code like that.

[Harrowby Hall]

So it would seem, Brownie, but the BBC source cited in the opening post states:

Temp worker Nicola Thorp, 27, from Hackney, arrived at finance company PwC to be told she had to wear shoes with a "2in to 4in heel".

When she arrived.  So does this mean that someone at PwC informed the temp agency? How else would the agency have known?

[Rhiannon]

Yes, this is the temp agency meeting the requirements of its clients.

[Udayana]

No - PwC don't have such a requirement.

This is a sub-contractor trying to present a certain image of their staff in competition with other sub-contractors/outsourcing agencies. They are easily hired and fired and willing to take on risks that would be unacceptable for larger companies.

Really it's like outsourcing, possibly subliminal, sexist and other prejudiced attitudes and policies.

[Udayana]

...
When she arrived.  So does this mean that someone at PwC informed the temp agency? How else would the agency have known?

No, she was met by a supervisor from the sub-contracting agency,

[Rhiannon]

No - PwC don't have such a requirement.

This is a sub-contractor trying to present a certain image of their staff in competition with other sub-contractors/outsourcing agencies. They are easily hired and fired and willing to take on risks that would be unacceptable for larger companies.

Really it's like outsourcing, possibly subliminal, sexist and other prejudiced attitudes and policies.

Yes, it's buck-passing. It doesn't have to be an official requirement for it to be known that x will get you more work than y. And of course attitudes may have changed within PWC but that hasn't filtered down to the firms it subcontracts to.

[Sassy]

If you didn't like them you could make it stilettos and stamp hard. 

 

Do blokes really say that to women?

I'm not sure a bloke would survive if I walked up his back in a pair of high heels. He'd never walk again, probably.

He'd get laughed at by his mates as they carried him off, for being so daft 

I guess some men think some women like that type of thing being said to them.
I personally would find it insulting and disrespectful.  It means they are not seeing the person themselves or seeing them as decent and I would probably give him a slap for insulting me.

And Rose, you made me laugh.. you mean you would walk all over his back for his mates to see...
I rather took that to mean you would do it there and then to show how ill thought his comment was...

Gets my vote girl... you trample him under foot for being so insulting and forward.. LOL..

[Khatru]

You know what it's like to wear heels all day?

As it happens I like heels. But I shouldn't be forced to wear them. Not when there are men out there who think it's acceptable to come up to me and tell me they want me to walk across their back in them.

This story's particularly creepy as it involves a receptionist - someone with very little power in an organisation.

Man, some people need to keep their fetishes to themselves!

[Hope]

When she arrived.  So does this mean that someone at PwC informed the temp agency? How else would the agency have known?

Companies are told by agencies what to expect of the temporary staff who are sent to them just as much as agencies are told what is expected of the staff they hire on the behalf of companies.  The only time I've come close to being employed by a normal temp. agency the organisation itself employed me direct at the last moment, as a result of a friend recommending me.  My name had obviously been passed to them at an earlier stage as a potential temporary post-holder.  On my arrival I was told that the agency they thought I'd come from expected A, B & C.  So I asked what the orgnisation expected, and that was a very different story.  Far more informal dress code, a degree of flexiblity of arrival and leaving time, so long as I did 8 hours of work a day, ...