NICOLA THORP - WOMAN SENT HOME FROM WORK FOR NOT WEARING HEELS | GUEST POST BY REE

This was a story that was huge a few months ago in the UK. Even 
though this is technically 'old news', it still plays on my mind now. 
This is why I had to get thoughts to laptop and write about it.

Social media is a powerful tool that can sometimes truly be an 
eye-opener. Although most of us probably think that we are living 
in modern and highly civilized times, very often some situations prove 
as quite the opposite. It is hard to imagine that today one woman could 
be sent home from work just because she was not dressed like some 
director thinks should be right. Well, this just happened to a young lady 
in London, the capital of The United Kingdom.

Nicola Thorp, who is she?

Nicola Thorp is a 27-year-old girl from Hackney in London, and most 
people would say she's  lucky to live in such a city where you have all 
the freedom you want. Well, it seems she's not as free as she may have 
tought. Namely, she just got a job as a receptionist in the PwC’s outsourced 
reception firm Portico but her first day at work didn't go so well. As 
soon as she arrived at her new workplace she was sent home. And 
the reason why? Her shoes! It seems it was a mistake going to work 
in flat shoes since the company policy prescribed all women to 
wear high heels. So, instead of earning money, she was sent home 
without pay and told not to come back without the proper footwear, 
even though the men working there were not ordered to wear any type 
of shoe. Yes, this happened in London in the 21st century!

Nicola Thorp petition

Luckily, this young lady showed a lot of courage and self-awareness 
and decided to share her story with the public via the social media. 
She also started a petition to change laws that allow the companies to 
tell their workers how to dress! In my opinion, the way you dress is 
your call, since you pay for the clothes and shoes. The primary purpose 
of the clothes and shoes is to make you feel comfortable, and standing 
nine hours in high heels is not even close to being comfortable. On the 
contrary, it's even harmful to your feet, so I think that the directors who 
make such policies should personally test their "laws" before making 
others to obey them. And it seems I'm not the only one who has this opinion 
because Nicola's petition got 11,000 signatures in just a couple of hours, 
and the numbers are still growing.  

Is it illegal to ask women to wear heels at work?

Well, it seems it still is, but hopefully, this will change soon, and 
Nicola's petition might be the first spark. I don't think that anyone 
who is signing this petition believes we don't need any dress codes. 
Of course, you should not be dressed at work the same way you are at 
home, or in the gym, etc. But there should be more common sense and 
more democracy - we are a democratic country, right? Many 
circumstances should be taken into consideration before making any 
policies, for example, is wearing high heels every day for nine hours 
going to affect your health? Also, is there any actual need for this kind 
of shoe at work? Do the high heels make women smarter or better 
workers? I don't think so, in fact, this particular policy is not only harmful 
but also discriminatory and sexist. 

I believe that there are enough  arguments for this practice to be changed 
or even forbidden and that the whole society should raise their voices. 
Because if we let them today tell us what to wear, maybe tomorrow they 
will also tell us what to do, think, believe, etc. And if that happens, ladies 
and gentleman, that will be the end of democracy and our civilization.

REE'S BLOG | REE'S INSTAGRAM | REE'S TWITTER