The Met Office may have backtracked on its promises of a ‘barbecue summer’, but you’d never know it with all the shorts, t-shirts, skimpy tops and sandals around the office. Yes, it’s summer and the line between what is and isn’t appropriate to wear in the workplace is once again being kicked around by flip-flop clad feet.
Ahhh, flip-flops. You either love them or you hate them. But no matter where you stand, I think most of us would agree that they’re not exactly the most office-appropriate footwear. After all, your co-workers really don’t want to see your bare feet (even if you did just splurge on a pedicure), nor do they want to hear that incessant slap, slap, slap noise when you walk.
If you’ve had enough of seeing (and hearing) flip-flops in your office and want to do something about it, take a look at this:
The New York Daily News did a little legwork and found that flip-flops are hotbeds of bacteria. The pairs they examined were only worn for four days but lab tests found more than 18,000 bacteria on them. City streets are littered with rubbish, dirt, scampering rodents, remnants of stag nights…yuck. But it gets worse. Some of the bacteria the researchers found are especially nasty – and can even kill you. If one bad microscopic bug gets into your bloodstream through, oh say, a little cut on your foot, your flip-flop wearing days might be over. Yikes.
That will probably do the trick. Forward your flip-flop colleagues this article in a high importance email. Or print it off on some nice bright A4 and hang it on the office bulletin board. These findings are just what you need to ensure everyone wears appropriate footwear to the office tomorrow. Shoes: 1, flip-flops: 0.
