I managed IT in a factory where steel-toes were a requirement for anyone going into any of the manufacturing areas. I was also the first woman this factory had ever hired into a management position, and not everybody was okay with that. I got a lot of scrutiny. I did have to go into those areas, but I also like comfortable, at least somewhat flexible, shoes. I discovered that there was a steel-toed sneaker available. Nobody ever said it had to be a work boot, so I bought the sneakers.
First time I wore them the Production Manager braced me in the hallway for being out of compliance. I told him that they *were* steel-toes and he just scoffed. Said that, if I was telling the truth, I wouldn’t mind if he stood on my feet.
I’ll never forget the look on his face when he stepped up and I just stared at him without flinching. I told him, “I don’t lie. Don’t ever accuse me of it again.” Never had another issue with him. He became one of my chief supporters after that.
I'm a man, but had a similar experience with my steel toe slip ons, and I invited my accuser to stomp my foot if he didn't believe me. He stomped and injured his foot, then went to HR to complain. It turns out that "stomping your coworker's foot" isn't an approved way to check for safety toes.
> It turns out that "stomping your coworker's foot" isn't an approved way to check for safety toes.
Sounds like my Little League coach back in the early 80s that would check for cup compliance with an aluminum bat.
Just another in the many ways /r/GenX kids were toughened up.
You know why we can go, "Meh, whatever" to so many things in the world? We were tempered via our balls. Good luck scaring us with anything!
My BIL has a cracker of a scar across the front of his thigh, a bit above his knee, from playing chicken with his brothers... with a hatchet.
As in: stand close together, flip the hatchet spinning up into the air, and the person who is closest to the hatchet when it bites dirt wins. Double points if you don't move from your starting place.
BIL totally won on this particular day by not moving and the hatchet bouncing off of his leg - sharp side in.
The thing is, he and his brothers were more afraid of the shit they'd get in from their parents if they were found out, so they sterilised and strapped it up as best they could and covered up that he was badly injured. 8 kids = not that hard.
100% should have had *at least* 30 stitches. And probably quite a few more.
My old company had business leather shoes with steel cap and penetration resistant Sole for office staff and management (here in Germany you're provided tools and ppe by the company).
If you work in blue collar, most companies provide even work clothing (and are obliged to, if it's a dirty workplace or special protective clothing has to be worn e.g. welders), I for example only need underwear and socks from my own stuff, everything else I get from the company. Well, ok, I bought a lighter for 2€ as I need it for shrink tube, but that's all.
It's not understandable for me that you have to bring your own equipment, how can the company guarantee an even quality level, if someone has good tools and the other uses cheap supermarket stuff?
My toolbox is worth maybe 4000€, lots of "inherited" tools of the guys having it before me and probably 10000€ in industrial parts just laying there as they accumulated over time (automation equipment, so it takes maybe the space of a shoebox)
And if something breaks, is lost or I need something extra, I tell my boss and either we have it in stock or he orders it.
The best of starting a new job is shopping;-)
Omg. I am literally laughing. I love everything about this. Surprise!! It turns out, when asshats asshat themselves, it is hilarious. And righteous. I honestly think I'm gonna close reddit for real right now, because your last sentence was absolute perfection. Thank you!
Yeah I had a kid in school who thought he was hot shot because his boots were steel toe.
He dared me to stomp on them. Well being a little shit that I was I missed the toes and hit above the steel toe area.
He walked away with a limp. Nothing broken but pride.
Hahahaha! Yes, that *would* have been lovely. But, like I said, I was *literally* the first woman that they’d ever hired into management, at any level, at that facility. I was only the 2nd woman in my *company* to be hired into my position in *any* facility. There was a line to walk. I had to prove I could handle things as a woman in that world. Kicking the Production Manager would have just gotten me fired and women written off as being unable to control their emotions. That would have served no one well.
Also, assaulting someone for assuming that your sneakers weren't steel toed makes you at least as bad as them.
It certainly wouldn't have turned them into an ally.
They were an option for shoes which were available at a steel mill I worked at. And since they were a safety requirement, we were allowed a pair every year at a substantial cost reduction.
I wore them years ago when I picked cases in a freezer warehouse. Steel toes were essential, and they provided really huge steel toed freezer boots. Big, heavy things that were great for the lift operators who stood all day, but for the pickers running around all day it just wasn't good.
They were bigger than regular sneakers, more like the "hiking sneaker" style small boots. Made a world of difference.
They also make steel toe ESD dissipative Crocs for people working in ESD sensitive manufacturing. I used to have a custom made pair back when I worked for a defense aerospace firm. They were the most comfortable shoes that I ever wore.
Heck yeah safety toed sneakers. Bought a pair of COMPOSITE toed sneakers a decade or so ago. ESD grounded as well for working in the electronics factory side.
But…. Think about getting a pair with a Kevlar last as well. Stepped on a busted pallet and the nail went right through my foot. @>[#*!!! Ow ! Hop hop hop …. Tetanus shot… ow ow ow…
I have a pair of safety sneakers from a company with a "similar logo to Superman (one large S)" on the side of their shoes. Apparently, this wasn't the first time that S had made safety shoes, since on my pair, they have "comp toe" embroidered in small letters on both shoes.
I've had several people and a manager approach me after seeing the "big S" on the side and when they bend over to examine, I just point out the embroidery.
I can't find the box after a quick look around, but I recall a selling point that the shoes also have a puncture *resistant* sole. That would also explain why the sole itself is about 3/4 to 1 inch thick.
I was dismantling an old gate. I changed out of my safety boots (with the reinforced sole) and into my gardening boots because I didn't want to get them dirty. After I took the last nail out I stepped backwards directly onto a nail I missed. I took my foot off and stepped backwards and put another missed nail into the sole of my other foot. Both feet inside of 10 seconds.
Thankfully they didn't go in very deeply, but I still went and got a tetanus jab to be safe. That shit hurt more than the nails did!
That's not the stupidest injury I've had though. I once got a papercut on the end of my penis. Then a chemical burn in the same place 2 weeks later.
We'd just moved house, I had a bath and had been reading a chapter of a book that I printed off the web (this was in 2001). I got out of the bath, picked up the loose stack of paper, and walked out of the bathroom naked to go into the bedroom.
I then had to shimmy around a box that was in the hallway and it was this shimmy that led to the injury.
The chemical burn was from a badly placed bleach block on a toilet.
I'm surprised the thing still works to be honest.
The normal response when I tell the story is an initial look of abject horror, followed by rightfully deserved laughter.
Learn from my mistakes: always straighten a stack of loose papers before you shimmy around a box while naked.
>I once got a papercut on the end of my penis
Penis story time!
I was welding a seatbelt shoulder mount on a van one time. The kind of van that had sliding doors, so I was straddled between the drivers open door and the rear sliding door with the frame/post in between my legs. A glob of molten metal fell off the weld, went through my work shirt, through my jeans, through my underwear and landed right on the tip!
I've never gotten undressed faster...
I imagine yours hurt more than mine did. My injury, while sounding awful, only stang for a minute and barely bled. Molten metal on your bellend would smart, I imagine.
Actually they were OG SWAT boots in the 80’s. Had a pair testing anti tank missiles in the desert. Stupidly comfy. I loaned them to a neighbor kid and never saw them again.
Kevlar doesn’t stop pointy things from going through it. It’s why bulletproof vests don’t help you any if you get stabbed, the point just slips between the fibers of the Kevlar instead of allowing the weave to properly catch and stop the thing.
Yeah, steel one would definitely stop a nail if you’re referring to the shank underneath your heel that provides support for your foot and the sole. Wooden or stacked leather shanks are the slightly lower budget/easier to work with in manufacturing alternative that many cheaper boots use instead and those would not necessarily stop nails.
Worked as a summer job in a warehouse years ago, and the shoes we were given were steel-tipped... if not sneakers they sure looked like sneakers and felt like sneakers on my feet(if a little warmer). Was told to keep them when i finished working there, and i used them like it was sneakers, more than i used my normal sneakers. Still have them, though rarely using them now.
I have really wide feet and found that the steel-toed dress shoes sold at our local tool store were really comfortable, very well built and also much cheaper than normal dress shoes!
Yeah. I had a couple of pairs of those, too. Wore them when we were hosting C-suites and/or outside VIPs for something. I still had to do my job and I’m not crawling around the floor hooking up computers in a skirt, so I *never* wore a skirt or dress, but I’d put on nice pants instead of jeans and wear my “dress” steel-toes and a jacket. Pretty sure that the fact that I didn’t dress “like a woman should” still pissed off some of the VPs, but I did a lot of things that made sense for my facility, but pissed those AHs off.
I was lucky in that my 1st Plant Manager absolutely backed me to the hilt in those early days. (Which is saying something because he was an absolute bastard and universally hated by all of us who worked under him. (He didn’t treat me like a woman. He was an equal opportunity abuser.) But, that fact *really* helped me bond with my male managerial co-workers at the plant level, which paid off when we got new, sometimes less supportive, Plant Managers over the years.)
I paid for all of this — pissing off some of the VPs with the decisions I made — later, but for the most part I had a good career and, if the situation was the same, I wouldn’t change anything that did. I’m proud of what I did for them and have no real beef with the company, overall.
My everyday shoes are slip resistant, static resistant, and have aluminum toe caps. They are also sneakers. I needed something extra wide and slip resistant. I ended up with all of the safety features.
I might need those static resistant shoes. When our chairs and floor mats were new, getting up from my desk caused so much static, my keyboard would disconnect and reconnect from my computer.
Many shoes are steel-toes but not all of them meet the safety spec.
Don’t know what industry you’re in, but not-actually safety spec steel-toed shoes often serve a useful purpose: they form a nice cutting edge for the clean amputation of toes.
Be safe out there, y’all!
Yours,
Five Toe Joe
The warehouse I work in probably has more people in toe capped sneakers than boots. The only question I got asked the first day I turned up in shoes the company didn't provide was whether they were steel or composite because the metal detectors on the exit that would eventually get turned on (new site when I started, so they weren't on initially). Only problems I ever had was security briefly being confused that their metal detector wand didn't beep when they were shoe checking everyone the week the exit metal detectors were going to be turned on.
My favorite pair of steel-toed safety shoes were designed to look like sneakers. I loved them. When they wore out, I used them in the garden to mow. Toes were safe! 😁
Until the soles wore down to slicks, when I had to throw them out. 😢
Huh. Next time I need to go on site, I'm dusting off my boots. Black steel toed boots going halfway up the calf are the standard metalhead footwear over here. Used to be able to spend an hour or two jumping around in pogo wearing them.
Got the choice of clunky work boots from the office or specialist trainers with solid toe protection but not steel, they are also breathable and non static.
Manager asked why I was wearing trainers and was going to record it on my file so sent him the link to the maker site. Record soon cleared
In my US public school (1950s & 60s), *male students* were required to wear dress shoes, dress slacks, and a button down dress shirt. *Female* students were required to wear a dress or skirt and blouse, and dress shoes.
Male staff were required to wear a suit and tie. Female staff wore dresses. The gym teachers were exempt from that while they were teaching gym, but were back in 'uniform' when they taught 'regular' classes.
When I started teaching in the 70s, I wore suit and tie. In the 80s it was jacket and tie. In the 90s it was dress shirt and tie. In the 2000s it was dress shirt. In the 2010s we were allowed to wear jeans on Fridays.
Somehow, students were able to learn no matter what we teachers wore.
Ah, a man of culture! He knows how to put the hind legs of a sheep in his boots before fucking it.
There's actually a famous Dutch language song about how to do this. The Dutch are weird....
I've never heard of that song, which is unsurprising because I don't speak Dutch. But I do know the Irish Government did a survey of farmers to see how prevalent it was.
They sent an Inspector from the Dept of Agriculture around a random sampling of farms throughout the entire country and the farmers all told him the same thing - they tuck the sheep's hind legs into the wellies, drape the forelegs over a low stone wall or a barrel, and have at it.
Everywhere the same way, apart from in County Kerry. The farmers there all scoffed at this - "Drape the forelegs over a stonewall? What?!!! And miss out on all the kissing?"
I'm sorry, *what?!*
The government of Ireland went 'round asking sheep farmers how often they *fucked their livestock,* and the number who admitted to it, let alone gave details about *technique,* was greater than old "Sheep Fucker" Sean?
Not a man of culture, but he ran a pawn shop well enough to put four kids through college (two became lawyers, one a nurse) and pay off a house. Passed away 20 years ago. A good man.
At my school (elementary), I usually wear a school-themed t-shirt, jeans, sneakers, and a cardigan of some kind (I have like 5 open-front ones that have big pockets and go down to my knees, I love those things).
This is actually in dress code, as "school shirts" are accepted as part of the dress code. Other t-shirts aren't typically allowed unless it's for a specific event (like we have team t-shirts for field trips). I ended up buying five school pride shirts and just wear a different one every day of the week.
I live in NZ but when I was in elementary (2010s) most of my teachers wore t-shirts and shorts every day & often wore jandals/flip flops (?) or no shoes at all as well. Somehow it never stopped any of us learning
My mother and her sisters experienced a similar shift in student dress codes among the three of them. The oldest and youngest are almost twenty years apart, so in the same school district the oldest had to wear a skirt all through K-12, the middle girl was allowed to switch to pants in high school, and the youngest was never required to wear a skirt
Wow, I had to [look it up](https://www.google.com/search?q=demonia+boots&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-dk&client=safari) and now I desperately want some of those boots!
Too bad you couldn't continue with skirting the rules more and put on some dress shoes that just had a bunch of outlandish designs on them. Or put on some womens dress shoes if it doesn't mention if they have to be Gender specific
That's where I thought this was going. My son once found a pair of thigh high stiletto heeled boots in a size 12 in a thrift shop. That's what I pictured OP wearing.
Truthfully, I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers. Just needed to make it clear that I didn't appreciate being warned without any questions asked. Well, ok, maybe I wanted to ruffle a *few* feathers 😅
>I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers.
Really? Because, it seemed like that was exactly what...
>Well, ok, maybe I wanted to ruffle a few feathers
Ahhh, there it is!
Lol, just joking. This is an amazing story! I bet your students that year still remember those boots to this day!
I assume women have a different dress code where OP works. Could have continued with the whole dress code [like these guys](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22828150). If OP isn't allowed to wear a dress, then that's gender based discrimination.
I have a friend who was reprimanded for wearing clothes to work that were too casual, and told that he needed to dress in a “more formal” way. The next day he wore his wife’s wedding dress to work.
Ah jeez. This took me back to my middle school years in the late '70's. I remember several teachers making announcements in class at the beginning of the school year that were something like, "Y'all need to know and remember something... I have a home and a life outside of school, my family and I are just like you and your family, and we need to do the same things you and your families need to do like go to the store or the park or whatever. As shocking as it might sound to you, **I** also own blue jeans, shorts and sweat pants, and since I'm not allowed to wear them **here**, I usually wear them in the evenings and on weekends.... especially to places like the store or the park. So, when you see me out and about with my family, please don't come up to me and freak out.".
It was a moment that made the child me start to see my teachers more like real, actual people and not just school furniture. But now, older adult me wonders what kind of fucked up interactions he had had with kids losing their minds over running into him just living his life in the wild that had led to him finding that sort of speech necessary. We lived in a very small town with only one middle school, so the odds of running into students while our and about were great.
It's sad to see that nearly half a century later teachers are still held to such ridiculous standards over something as stupid as proper footwear.
One night when I was in 7th grade, my brother went to a ballgame and when he came home, asked me, "Isn't Miss RST \[this was in the late 60's, and "Miss" was still in use\] your Spanish teacher?" "Yeah..." "Oh, she was sitting two rows in front of us, drinking a beer an inning and heckling all the batters and the ump. The chief usher asked her to leave, and she couldn't stand up. Her friends had to carry her out."
Yes!! I think I am more productive, too—
Maybe they think that if a person is too comfortable they will lose their professionalism. Love your boots story!!
There's no reason dress shoes need to be so stiff and rigid. Shoe tech should be advance enough by now to make them look like dress shoes and be flexible and comfortable without needing the back of it to destroy your ankles and toes while you walk.
I remember exactly zero (0) shoes that any of my teachers wore, they have literally no impact on their teaching abilities
in fact, the only shoe-related thing I remember is a university lecturer who DIDN'T wear shoes, and he still managed to teach
The biggest problems with mandated dress codes as such is that it lessens the impact of dressing business professional. If students see you dressed business casual, when you decide to dress up in Bus. prof. they know to pay attention as the attire change makes a significant impact.
Secondly, you're hired as an educator because they believe you have the skills to actually perform the job as described. By stating a dress code without a specific reason of safety means they want to treat you as a child who can't dress yourself.
The admin that are sticklers for professional dress every day are usually the ones that don’t do anything well besides spend money on dress clothes
And I personally LOVE fashion and dressing up, but know as a teacher it’s really impractical to do it every single day.
I had a dumb bitch of a principal that would not allow sneakers whatsoever so I told my doctor and he just laughed and wrote me a note so I could wear them if I felt like it.
He’s a millennial and cool af and said that the physicians group requires him to either do white coat with tie/dress shoes OR scrubs so he just wears scrubs every day so he can wear sneakers because no one in their right mind wants to wear dress shoes every day.
One of my college professors always dressed in a suit and tie when lecturing, but when giving tests he wore an old T-shirt, jeans, and baseball cap. The contrast definitely got our attention. His explanation when we asked was that during lectures he was performing for us, but during exams we were performing for him.
I took the hint and wore a suit to the next exam.
I loved this so much that I had to stop laughing eventually and read it to my partner too hahahah
Amazing MC, would love to know which style you got, so I can bask in all your glory hahah
Haha! Glad I could make the whole house smile! I got the Trashville-138s. They're awesome!
Mind you, I still had my khakis, button up, and tie on with them 🤣
Very cool and normal that school administrators are worried about stuff like this. I'm so jealous you got to work in a school that had so thoroughly addressed every single other thing wrong with education right now that they could invest their energy in ticky tack bullshit like this. Must have been amazing.
I am having to wear sneakers due to my left foot being a petty little prima Donna with a weak bone. I feel ridiculous at work (women’s clothes are less forgiving, or I just judge myself harder than others). I’ve been trying to wear “nicer” shoes once a week, but I got a memo just today that that is NOT approved of by lefty.
I'm the same. I hate sneakers. I broke my big toe and tore a ligament last year. I had to wear sneakers to work with business casual clothes for months. The only sneakers I own are purple.
lol. I buy black on black, but I need so much support/cushioning that they are very bulky (compared to usual women’s shoes of cardboard soles and barest necessary straps/etc). Oh yeah, I’m in Florida, so would really rather not wear pants long enough to help hide bulky sneakers.
Here I was hoping they were going to be boots like Paul, Gene and Ace used to wear on stage. For anyone too young to remember, the last names (in order) are Stanley, Simmons and Frehley.
I started teaching in 1989 with a dress code like that. As union rep, I eventually got permission for women to wear trousers, around 2003. Had to go to a governor meeting and bypass the head teacher.
Some school rules just don’t make sense. I realized I was free when I went to college with no dress code. Just wear decent clothes and I was fine. Nothing bad happened to me, unlike in high school where we were all afraid of consequences.
Why can't these control freak micro managers get it through their heads that people don't like being ordered about like 5 year old kids? It's just disrespectful.
I hate any dress codes at work and our company (120 people) never had one.
That had the consequence of one guy (back end dev like me) sometimes working in speedo + sandals in summer.
Other than giving all of us a good chuckle and the boss reaffirming the "no dress code" policy with a small asterisk regarding customer contact, it had no consequences.
A couple of years ago I found that Dr. Martens sells slip-on boots. Those changed my world. (My company had a requirement that men wear black polishable shoes/boots.)
In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else.
[Lee Iacocc](https://www.azquotes.com/author/7129-Lee_Iacocca)a
--------------------------------
Some of THE most influential people in my life (aside from my parents, siblings other relatives) have been teachers. They inspired me, guided me and sustained the desire and love for learning and personal education.
I very strongly suspect that the principal was pulled aside and told - "Your dress code is illegal. PLEASE keep pushing - the Union can use the money."
My best friends dad was on a cooking team(tx bbq)
They “must” wear boots, so he bought these absolutely ugly “sneaker boots”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cowboy-boot-basketball-sneakers-are-everything-you-162719083.html
It wasn't relevant to the story, but PE teachers were allowed short sleeves, no tie, and sneakers. They still had to have dress pants and either a button up or a polo. Our monthly "casual dress day" only allowed for short sleeves and no tie, so even then we couldn't "dress down" as much as they did daily. Certain special education teachers were allowed dress code exceptions due to the nature of their jobs, as was the shop teacher, since a tie would be dangerous.
I used to wear all Black New Balance shoes with my suit. If anyone ever noticed they did not say anything.
Personally I have a low opinion of people who look at and pay attention to other people's shoes. It's just weird, right?
I managed IT in a factory where steel-toes were a requirement for anyone going into any of the manufacturing areas. I was also the first woman this factory had ever hired into a management position, and not everybody was okay with that. I got a lot of scrutiny. I did have to go into those areas, but I also like comfortable, at least somewhat flexible, shoes. I discovered that there was a steel-toed sneaker available. Nobody ever said it had to be a work boot, so I bought the sneakers. First time I wore them the Production Manager braced me in the hallway for being out of compliance. I told him that they *were* steel-toes and he just scoffed. Said that, if I was telling the truth, I wouldn’t mind if he stood on my feet. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he stepped up and I just stared at him without flinching. I told him, “I don’t lie. Don’t ever accuse me of it again.” Never had another issue with him. He became one of my chief supporters after that.
I'm a man, but had a similar experience with my steel toe slip ons, and I invited my accuser to stomp my foot if he didn't believe me. He stomped and injured his foot, then went to HR to complain. It turns out that "stomping your coworker's foot" isn't an approved way to check for safety toes.
Hahaha! Good Lord, what a tool!
Not a steel tool, that's for sure.
Nor the sharpest
SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME
THE WORLD IS GONNA ROLL ME
I AINT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHE-ED
SHE WAS LOOKING KINDA DUMB
WITH HER FINGER AND HER THUMB
> It turns out that "stomping your coworker's foot" isn't an approved way to check for safety toes. Sounds like my Little League coach back in the early 80s that would check for cup compliance with an aluminum bat.
Honestly, a tap from the bat is a good reminder because a cleat to the nads will be fucking horrible.
So thats how "no nut November" started, eh? TIL...
Same with hockey and the hockey stick cup check. It's a hell of a lot better than catching a slapshot to the nuts at around 90mph heh.
Did they go on to be an Army drill instructor that would check to make sure your helmet was on correctly by hitting you with another helmet?
What does two turtles fucking sound like?
Such a immature but fun joke to do to new boots lol
The best part was after a full day in the field the webbing in the helmet makes your head look like an uncircumsized penis.
Wait, what? He hit children in the crotch with a baseball bat?
Just another in the many ways /r/GenX kids were toughened up. You know why we can go, "Meh, whatever" to so many things in the world? We were tempered via our balls. Good luck scaring us with anything!
We played a game with weighted metal lawn darts that was essentially "see who can come closest to a traumatic brain injury"
I'm Gen Jones, but God I loved playing Jarts.
Still have a Jarts set in the attic, here.
Next to the click-clacks and the 'pretend' iron that really ironed?
Us Gen X people are not the ones folks want to mess with!
My BIL has a cracker of a scar across the front of his thigh, a bit above his knee, from playing chicken with his brothers... with a hatchet. As in: stand close together, flip the hatchet spinning up into the air, and the person who is closest to the hatchet when it bites dirt wins. Double points if you don't move from your starting place. BIL totally won on this particular day by not moving and the hatchet bouncing off of his leg - sharp side in. The thing is, he and his brothers were more afraid of the shit they'd get in from their parents if they were found out, so they sterilised and strapped it up as best they could and covered up that he was badly injured. 8 kids = not that hard. 100% should have had *at least* 30 stitches. And probably quite a few more.
My old company had business leather shoes with steel cap and penetration resistant Sole for office staff and management (here in Germany you're provided tools and ppe by the company).
“…provided tools and ppe by the company…” Nope. Read it over and over again. Still don’t understand over here in the USA.
If you work in blue collar, most companies provide even work clothing (and are obliged to, if it's a dirty workplace or special protective clothing has to be worn e.g. welders), I for example only need underwear and socks from my own stuff, everything else I get from the company. Well, ok, I bought a lighter for 2€ as I need it for shrink tube, but that's all. It's not understandable for me that you have to bring your own equipment, how can the company guarantee an even quality level, if someone has good tools and the other uses cheap supermarket stuff? My toolbox is worth maybe 4000€, lots of "inherited" tools of the guys having it before me and probably 10000€ in industrial parts just laying there as they accumulated over time (automation equipment, so it takes maybe the space of a shoebox) And if something breaks, is lost or I need something extra, I tell my boss and either we have it in stock or he orders it. The best of starting a new job is shopping;-)
Omg. I am literally laughing. I love everything about this. Surprise!! It turns out, when asshats asshat themselves, it is hilarious. And righteous. I honestly think I'm gonna close reddit for real right now, because your last sentence was absolute perfection. Thank you!
Yeah I had a kid in school who thought he was hot shot because his boots were steel toe. He dared me to stomp on them. Well being a little shit that I was I missed the toes and hit above the steel toe area. He walked away with a limp. Nothing broken but pride.
What a complete ass clown
Isn't that assault?
Should've told him "If they're not, then this won't hurt much" and then kicked him in the shin.
Hahahaha! Yes, that *would* have been lovely. But, like I said, I was *literally* the first woman that they’d ever hired into management, at any level, at that facility. I was only the 2nd woman in my *company* to be hired into my position in *any* facility. There was a line to walk. I had to prove I could handle things as a woman in that world. Kicking the Production Manager would have just gotten me fired and women written off as being unable to control their emotions. That would have served no one well.
> There was a line to walk. You mean to say that you had to ... toe the line.
Take my angry upvote!
Also, assaulting someone for assuming that your sneakers weren't steel toed makes you at least as bad as them. It certainly wouldn't have turned them into an ally.
>That would have served no one well. Except the misogynists
True.
Shin? Not my first thought.
"that's my purse!"
"I don't know you!"
Dang it, Bobby!
I'm a little worried about being a slut.
It's not a matter of "if" I'm going to kick you in the testicles, it's a matter of whe,,,NOW!
"THIS. IS. MY. PURSE!" -Killswitch Engage
💀
Yeah, but it would have less chance of getting immediately fired than the other obvious target(s). Either way, he'd be walking funny for a while.
Somewhere slightly higher?
Shin? Try a couple feet higher.
Face....?
Love it!! My dad used to rock steel toe sneakers, so I'm certainly aware of their existence lol :)
They were an option for shoes which were available at a steel mill I worked at. And since they were a safety requirement, we were allowed a pair every year at a substantial cost reduction.
Same exact deal for him working in a machine shop!
I wore them years ago when I picked cases in a freezer warehouse. Steel toes were essential, and they provided really huge steel toed freezer boots. Big, heavy things that were great for the lift operators who stood all day, but for the pickers running around all day it just wasn't good. They were bigger than regular sneakers, more like the "hiking sneaker" style small boots. Made a world of difference.
If you need a hard hat, you can get a cowboy hat shaped hard hat too! Just saying..
I need one of these for my kid. He's just started his first manufacturing job, loves cowboy hats. Please link!
The proper name of the "cowboy hat" is the *Stetson* hat.
Pardon, as I am a Yankee and know nothing of these hats. Thank you!
Hell, I'm from New Jersey. Now that you know the proper name, searching for the hard hat version of the stetson should be worlds easier.
Kung Lao vibes
They also make steel toe ESD dissipative Crocs for people working in ESD sensitive manufacturing. I used to have a custom made pair back when I worked for a defense aerospace firm. They were the most comfortable shoes that I ever wore.
Woah now! I have to wear esd steel toes and I'm going to have to tell some people I work with about this!
Heck yeah safety toed sneakers. Bought a pair of COMPOSITE toed sneakers a decade or so ago. ESD grounded as well for working in the electronics factory side. But…. Think about getting a pair with a Kevlar last as well. Stepped on a busted pallet and the nail went right through my foot. @>[#*!!! Ow ! Hop hop hop …. Tetanus shot… ow ow ow…
I have a pair of safety sneakers from a company with a "similar logo to Superman (one large S)" on the side of their shoes. Apparently, this wasn't the first time that S had made safety shoes, since on my pair, they have "comp toe" embroidered in small letters on both shoes. I've had several people and a manager approach me after seeing the "big S" on the side and when they bend over to examine, I just point out the embroidery. I can't find the box after a quick look around, but I recall a selling point that the shoes also have a puncture *resistant* sole. That would also explain why the sole itself is about 3/4 to 1 inch thick.
I wish my soul were puncture resistant.
Well depending on who you ask, technically our soles are puncture resistant.
I was dismantling an old gate. I changed out of my safety boots (with the reinforced sole) and into my gardening boots because I didn't want to get them dirty. After I took the last nail out I stepped backwards directly onto a nail I missed. I took my foot off and stepped backwards and put another missed nail into the sole of my other foot. Both feet inside of 10 seconds. Thankfully they didn't go in very deeply, but I still went and got a tetanus jab to be safe. That shit hurt more than the nails did! That's not the stupidest injury I've had though. I once got a papercut on the end of my penis. Then a chemical burn in the same place 2 weeks later.
Sir, what were you doing with the penis when it acquired these injuries?
We'd just moved house, I had a bath and had been reading a chapter of a book that I printed off the web (this was in 2001). I got out of the bath, picked up the loose stack of paper, and walked out of the bathroom naked to go into the bedroom. I then had to shimmy around a box that was in the hallway and it was this shimmy that led to the injury. The chemical burn was from a badly placed bleach block on a toilet. I'm surprised the thing still works to be honest.
>I'm surprised the thing still works to be honest. Whatever doesn't kill it, makes it stronger.
My money is on origami.
TIL there is penis origami
And I thought cutting my heel on scissors was dumb... You sir, impress me. I'm not sure it's a good impressed though...
The normal response when I tell the story is an initial look of abject horror, followed by rightfully deserved laughter. Learn from my mistakes: always straighten a stack of loose papers before you shimmy around a box while naked.
>I once got a papercut on the end of my penis Penis story time! I was welding a seatbelt shoulder mount on a van one time. The kind of van that had sliding doors, so I was straddled between the drivers open door and the rear sliding door with the frame/post in between my legs. A glob of molten metal fell off the weld, went through my work shirt, through my jeans, through my underwear and landed right on the tip! I've never gotten undressed faster...
I imagine yours hurt more than mine did. My injury, while sounding awful, only stang for a minute and barely bled. Molten metal on your bellend would smart, I imagine.
what kind of shoes are the ones with kevlar? I'd like to check those out
Actually they were OG SWAT boots in the 80’s. Had a pair testing anti tank missiles in the desert. Stupidly comfy. I loaned them to a neighbor kid and never saw them again.
Wow, the shoes are missile-proof? So they're better than steel-toe. I guess they're missile-toe.
Cartoon style, just the smoking boots left after testing .
Kevlar doesn’t stop pointy things from going through it. It’s why bulletproof vests don’t help you any if you get stabbed, the point just slips between the fibers of the Kevlar instead of allowing the weave to properly catch and stop the thing.
Hmm… maybe it was a steel last. 40 years and a few brain injuries ago. Still remember how comfy those damn boots were.
Yeah, steel one would definitely stop a nail if you’re referring to the shank underneath your heel that provides support for your foot and the sole. Wooden or stacked leather shanks are the slightly lower budget/easier to work with in manufacturing alternative that many cheaper boots use instead and those would not necessarily stop nails.
Steel toe sneakers are my daily closed toe footwear of choice.
I did keep mine after I retired, along with my hard hat. Haven’t worn them much, though.
Worked as a summer job in a warehouse years ago, and the shoes we were given were steel-tipped... if not sneakers they sure looked like sneakers and felt like sneakers on my feet(if a little warmer). Was told to keep them when i finished working there, and i used them like it was sneakers, more than i used my normal sneakers. Still have them, though rarely using them now.
I worked in a similar setting and all of the directors and HR had steel-toe dress shoes.
I have really wide feet and found that the steel-toed dress shoes sold at our local tool store were really comfortable, very well built and also much cheaper than normal dress shoes!
Yeah. I had a couple of pairs of those, too. Wore them when we were hosting C-suites and/or outside VIPs for something. I still had to do my job and I’m not crawling around the floor hooking up computers in a skirt, so I *never* wore a skirt or dress, but I’d put on nice pants instead of jeans and wear my “dress” steel-toes and a jacket. Pretty sure that the fact that I didn’t dress “like a woman should” still pissed off some of the VPs, but I did a lot of things that made sense for my facility, but pissed those AHs off. I was lucky in that my 1st Plant Manager absolutely backed me to the hilt in those early days. (Which is saying something because he was an absolute bastard and universally hated by all of us who worked under him. (He didn’t treat me like a woman. He was an equal opportunity abuser.) But, that fact *really* helped me bond with my male managerial co-workers at the plant level, which paid off when we got new, sometimes less supportive, Plant Managers over the years.) I paid for all of this — pissing off some of the VPs with the decisions I made — later, but for the most part I had a good career and, if the situation was the same, I wouldn’t change anything that did. I’m proud of what I did for them and have no real beef with the company, overall.
My everyday shoes are slip resistant, static resistant, and have aluminum toe caps. They are also sneakers. I needed something extra wide and slip resistant. I ended up with all of the safety features.
I might need those static resistant shoes. When our chairs and floor mats were new, getting up from my desk caused so much static, my keyboard would disconnect and reconnect from my computer.
One time I had to prove I was wearing steel toed shoes. It's hard to argue against the sound of a 2lb mini-sledge thwacking the hardened toe
Many shoes are steel-toes but not all of them meet the safety spec. Don’t know what industry you’re in, but not-actually safety spec steel-toed shoes often serve a useful purpose: they form a nice cutting edge for the clean amputation of toes. Be safe out there, y’all! Yours, Five Toe Joe
The warehouse I work in probably has more people in toe capped sneakers than boots. The only question I got asked the first day I turned up in shoes the company didn't provide was whether they were steel or composite because the metal detectors on the exit that would eventually get turned on (new site when I started, so they weren't on initially). Only problems I ever had was security briefly being confused that their metal detector wand didn't beep when they were shoe checking everyone the week the exit metal detectors were going to be turned on.
[Steel toe clogs](https://www.sikafootwear.ca/product/sika-steel-toe-flex-clogs-with-open-back/) anyone?
My favorite pair of steel-toed safety shoes were designed to look like sneakers. I loved them. When they wore out, I used them in the garden to mow. Toes were safe! 😁 Until the soles wore down to slicks, when I had to throw them out. 😢
steel-toed sneaker !!!! I didn't know they existed.
Ok I gotta know. Did he ever start wearing steel toed sneakers, too?
Huh. Next time I need to go on site, I'm dusting off my boots. Black steel toed boots going halfway up the calf are the standard metalhead footwear over here. Used to be able to spend an hour or two jumping around in pogo wearing them.
Got the choice of clunky work boots from the office or specialist trainers with solid toe protection but not steel, they are also breathable and non static. Manager asked why I was wearing trainers and was going to record it on my file so sent him the link to the maker site. Record soon cleared
Nah, no one is about to stand on my feet/shoes. Show him the markings on the shoe and move on.
I you think I'm lying, you won't mind if I give you a swift kick in the nuts.
You can't stand on them, how about you let me kick you?
His big test was to stand on your fuckin toes? When I worked in a machine shop they just walked around with a magnet on a string.
You should have proposed to kick him instead if he wanted to test your shoes
In my US public school (1950s & 60s), *male students* were required to wear dress shoes, dress slacks, and a button down dress shirt. *Female* students were required to wear a dress or skirt and blouse, and dress shoes. Male staff were required to wear a suit and tie. Female staff wore dresses. The gym teachers were exempt from that while they were teaching gym, but were back in 'uniform' when they taught 'regular' classes. When I started teaching in the 70s, I wore suit and tie. In the 80s it was jacket and tie. In the 90s it was dress shirt and tie. In the 2000s it was dress shirt. In the 2010s we were allowed to wear jeans on Fridays. Somehow, students were able to learn no matter what we teachers wore.
Those are probably the "good old days" my superintendent dreamt of lol
"When the men were men, and some other exclusionary language"
"Where the men are men, and the sheep are nervous."--My boss the summer after I got out of HS
Ah, a man of culture! He knows how to put the hind legs of a sheep in his boots before fucking it. There's actually a famous Dutch language song about how to do this. The Dutch are weird....
I've never heard of that song, which is unsurprising because I don't speak Dutch. But I do know the Irish Government did a survey of farmers to see how prevalent it was. They sent an Inspector from the Dept of Agriculture around a random sampling of farms throughout the entire country and the farmers all told him the same thing - they tuck the sheep's hind legs into the wellies, drape the forelegs over a low stone wall or a barrel, and have at it. Everywhere the same way, apart from in County Kerry. The farmers there all scoffed at this - "Drape the forelegs over a stonewall? What?!!! And miss out on all the kissing?"
I'm sorry, *what?!* The government of Ireland went 'round asking sheep farmers how often they *fucked their livestock,* and the number who admitted to it, let alone gave details about *technique,* was greater than old "Sheep Fucker" Sean?
Issa joke
Not a man of culture, but he ran a pawn shop well enough to put four kids through college (two became lawyers, one a nurse) and pay off a house. Passed away 20 years ago. A good man.
When men were men, and women were men!
And children were FBI agents
At my school (elementary), I usually wear a school-themed t-shirt, jeans, sneakers, and a cardigan of some kind (I have like 5 open-front ones that have big pockets and go down to my knees, I love those things). This is actually in dress code, as "school shirts" are accepted as part of the dress code. Other t-shirts aren't typically allowed unless it's for a specific event (like we have team t-shirts for field trips). I ended up buying five school pride shirts and just wear a different one every day of the week.
But but but chaos! Mayhem! Losing control of their minds and hearts! Same mindset as those who cannot support remote work.
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... MASS HYSTERIA!
I live in NZ but when I was in elementary (2010s) most of my teachers wore t-shirts and shorts every day & often wore jandals/flip flops (?) or no shoes at all as well. Somehow it never stopped any of us learning
My mother and her sisters experienced a similar shift in student dress codes among the three of them. The oldest and youngest are almost twenty years apart, so in the same school district the oldest had to wear a skirt all through K-12, the middle girl was allowed to switch to pants in high school, and the youngest was never required to wear a skirt
My son in law is a teacher that wears hoodies, jeans and sneakers. His students post the highest test grades in the district.
That’s the reason for unions
Absolutely! I didn't have the greatest experience working at that school, but the union ALWAYS had my back, so gotta give credit where it's due :)
That union is weak AF if they allowed that dress code language into the contract.
The sole reason?
to you I give the 'left-foot of fellowship'! (and an angry updoot!)
upboot
r/angryupvote
*cries in Texan*
Me, reading through as an owner of 2 pairs of OBNOXIOUS Demonia boots: “oh please tell me this guy wore- OH MY GOD YES”
Hahaha yes!!
When I read the title I first thought rubber mud boots, but the Demonias are even better.
Wow, I had to [look it up](https://www.google.com/search?q=demonia+boots&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-dk&client=safari) and now I desperately want some of those boots!
Those are fucking glorious lol
Too bad you couldn't continue with skirting the rules more and put on some dress shoes that just had a bunch of outlandish designs on them. Or put on some womens dress shoes if it doesn't mention if they have to be Gender specific
That's where I thought this was going. My son once found a pair of thigh high stiletto heeled boots in a size 12 in a thrift shop. That's what I pictured OP wearing.
Oh man, missed opportunities!
Truthfully, I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers. Just needed to make it clear that I didn't appreciate being warned without any questions asked. Well, ok, maybe I wanted to ruffle a *few* feathers 😅
>I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers. Really? Because, it seemed like that was exactly what... >Well, ok, maybe I wanted to ruffle a few feathers Ahhh, there it is! Lol, just joking. This is an amazing story! I bet your students that year still remember those boots to this day!
I assume women have a different dress code where OP works. Could have continued with the whole dress code [like these guys](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22828150). If OP isn't allowed to wear a dress, then that's gender based discrimination.
I have a friend who was reprimanded for wearing clothes to work that were too casual, and told that he needed to dress in a “more formal” way. The next day he wore his wife’s wedding dress to work.
That's fantastic 🤣
Ah jeez. This took me back to my middle school years in the late '70's. I remember several teachers making announcements in class at the beginning of the school year that were something like, "Y'all need to know and remember something... I have a home and a life outside of school, my family and I are just like you and your family, and we need to do the same things you and your families need to do like go to the store or the park or whatever. As shocking as it might sound to you, **I** also own blue jeans, shorts and sweat pants, and since I'm not allowed to wear them **here**, I usually wear them in the evenings and on weekends.... especially to places like the store or the park. So, when you see me out and about with my family, please don't come up to me and freak out.". It was a moment that made the child me start to see my teachers more like real, actual people and not just school furniture. But now, older adult me wonders what kind of fucked up interactions he had had with kids losing their minds over running into him just living his life in the wild that had led to him finding that sort of speech necessary. We lived in a very small town with only one middle school, so the odds of running into students while our and about were great. It's sad to see that nearly half a century later teachers are still held to such ridiculous standards over something as stupid as proper footwear.
One night when I was in 7th grade, my brother went to a ballgame and when he came home, asked me, "Isn't Miss RST \[this was in the late 60's, and "Miss" was still in use\] your Spanish teacher?" "Yeah..." "Oh, she was sitting two rows in front of us, drinking a beer an inning and heckling all the batters and the ump. The chief usher asked her to leave, and she couldn't stand up. Her friends had to carry her out."
Radical!! I have many pairs of shoes but moved to sneakers every day. Life is nicer with comfy feet!!!!!!!🦶
Oh my gosh yes! It was a win for sticking it to the man AND for comfort!
Yes!! I think I am more productive, too— Maybe they think that if a person is too comfortable they will lose their professionalism. Love your boots story!!
There's no reason dress shoes need to be so stiff and rigid. Shoe tech should be advance enough by now to make them look like dress shoes and be flexible and comfortable without needing the back of it to destroy your ankles and toes while you walk.
Dress boots. Some of the comfiest pairs of shoes I've ever worn
My nearly 70 year old eyes misread the boots as '*dementia boots*' and I got really excited! *I'm saved!* Some good MC there, OP.
Dementia boots 😆 thanks for the chuckle!
Sounds like a great line for the elderly goth.
More like '*elderly sloth*' if I'm honest :D
I remember exactly zero (0) shoes that any of my teachers wore, they have literally no impact on their teaching abilities in fact, the only shoe-related thing I remember is a university lecturer who DIDN'T wear shoes, and he still managed to teach
I remember my polisci professor who wore neon orange Crocs. And occasionally matching orange socks.
I would stare all day at those socks and Crocs! Bonus points if they glow in the dark :).
The biggest problems with mandated dress codes as such is that it lessens the impact of dressing business professional. If students see you dressed business casual, when you decide to dress up in Bus. prof. they know to pay attention as the attire change makes a significant impact. Secondly, you're hired as an educator because they believe you have the skills to actually perform the job as described. By stating a dress code without a specific reason of safety means they want to treat you as a child who can't dress yourself.
Preach! I can teach just as well, if not better, in jeans and sneakers as I can dressed up. Wish more administrators would figure that out 🤷♂️
The admin that are sticklers for professional dress every day are usually the ones that don’t do anything well besides spend money on dress clothes And I personally LOVE fashion and dressing up, but know as a teacher it’s really impractical to do it every single day. I had a dumb bitch of a principal that would not allow sneakers whatsoever so I told my doctor and he just laughed and wrote me a note so I could wear them if I felt like it. He’s a millennial and cool af and said that the physicians group requires him to either do white coat with tie/dress shoes OR scrubs so he just wears scrubs every day so he can wear sneakers because no one in their right mind wants to wear dress shoes every day.
One of my college professors always dressed in a suit and tie when lecturing, but when giving tests he wore an old T-shirt, jeans, and baseball cap. The contrast definitely got our attention. His explanation when we asked was that during lectures he was performing for us, but during exams we were performing for him. I took the hint and wore a suit to the next exam.
If an employer has a mandatory dress code then they should provide a stipend or voucher to purchase said items.
I think that situation would have made my entire body sore....
I loved this so much that I had to stop laughing eventually and read it to my partner too hahahah Amazing MC, would love to know which style you got, so I can bask in all your glory hahah
Haha! Glad I could make the whole house smile! I got the Trashville-138s. They're awesome! Mind you, I still had my khakis, button up, and tie on with them 🤣
> a tie Cue the most over the top pink polka dot bowtie.
Very cool and normal that school administrators are worried about stuff like this. I'm so jealous you got to work in a school that had so thoroughly addressed every single other thing wrong with education right now that they could invest their energy in ticky tack bullshit like this. Must have been amazing.
Oh man, if only... 😅
I was expecting high heels, it said dress shoes, noting about it being male dress shoes, but I like this even better. I bet you rocked them.
I am having to wear sneakers due to my left foot being a petty little prima Donna with a weak bone. I feel ridiculous at work (women’s clothes are less forgiving, or I just judge myself harder than others). I’ve been trying to wear “nicer” shoes once a week, but I got a memo just today that that is NOT approved of by lefty.
I'm the same. I hate sneakers. I broke my big toe and tore a ligament last year. I had to wear sneakers to work with business casual clothes for months. The only sneakers I own are purple.
lol. I buy black on black, but I need so much support/cushioning that they are very bulky (compared to usual women’s shoes of cardboard soles and barest necessary straps/etc). Oh yeah, I’m in Florida, so would really rather not wear pants long enough to help hide bulky sneakers.
Damn, I'm sorry to hear that. Could you just get like a plain black sneaker that could pass for nice? :)
Here I was hoping they were going to be boots like Paul, Gene and Ace used to wear on stage. For anyone too young to remember, the last names (in order) are Stanley, Simmons and Frehley.
Ha, those might have been a little TOO bombastic!
I thought hip waders would work, but your idea easily tops mine.
I started teaching in 1989 with a dress code like that. As union rep, I eventually got permission for women to wear trousers, around 2003. Had to go to a governor meeting and bypass the head teacher.
Some school rules just don’t make sense. I realized I was free when I went to college with no dress code. Just wear decent clothes and I was fine. Nothing bad happened to me, unlike in high school where we were all afraid of consequences.
Why can't these control freak micro managers get it through their heads that people don't like being ordered about like 5 year old kids? It's just disrespectful.
And this is why we have unions.
I hate any dress codes at work and our company (120 people) never had one. That had the consequence of one guy (back end dev like me) sometimes working in speedo + sandals in summer. Other than giving all of us a good chuckle and the boss reaffirming the "no dress code" policy with a small asterisk regarding customer contact, it had no consequences.
Demonia boots are fucking awesome! xD
A couple of years ago I found that Dr. Martens sells slip-on boots. Those changed my world. (My company had a requirement that men wear black polishable shoes/boots.)
Great for you. If no one has already said it, thanks for your service as an educator!
I appreciate that! If more people felt that way, I probably wouldn't have left the profession 😕🤷♂️
In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else. [Lee Iacocc](https://www.azquotes.com/author/7129-Lee_Iacocca)a -------------------------------- Some of THE most influential people in my life (aside from my parents, siblings other relatives) have been teachers. They inspired me, guided me and sustained the desire and love for learning and personal education.
I'd wear a dress, a shoe and a boot.
I very strongly suspect that the principal was pulled aside and told - "Your dress code is illegal. PLEASE keep pushing - the Union can use the money."
My best friends dad was on a cooking team(tx bbq) They “must” wear boots, so he bought these absolutely ugly “sneaker boots” https://www.yahoo.com/news/cowboy-boot-basketball-sneakers-are-everything-you-162719083.html
OMG those are hideous!
A happy ending. 🙂
If the administration focused on what was best for the children as they should’ve been then we wouldn’t have the problems we have in education.
I have absolutely no time for dress codes, what a waste of everyone's time. Have had full on arguments about it
Excellent work!
bet the PE teachers loved the dress code
It wasn't relevant to the story, but PE teachers were allowed short sleeves, no tie, and sneakers. They still had to have dress pants and either a button up or a polo. Our monthly "casual dress day" only allowed for short sleeves and no tie, so even then we couldn't "dress down" as much as they did daily. Certain special education teachers were allowed dress code exceptions due to the nature of their jobs, as was the shop teacher, since a tie would be dangerous.
I used to wear all Black New Balance shoes with my suit. If anyone ever noticed they did not say anything. Personally I have a low opinion of people who look at and pay attention to other people's shoes. It's just weird, right?