Walking barefoot has 2 fairly immediate effects: the skin under your feet becomes much thicker and tough; and your step becomes much lighter and reactive. If you stepped on a tack barefoot, it'd hurt a bit, but it most likely wouldn't pierce through your foot like it would the sole of the shoe, because your foot is much more aware with what it's walking on, and you don't slam down your feet on the ground as much as you walk around.

Putting rigid shoes on your feet is like stuffing your nose with cotton - you're completely blocking a very sensitive organ to the rest of the world.

All this just to say: people who walk barefoot every day are not worried of stepping on tacks :)

You're the guy who's barefoot in the office, aren't you?

I ran all over Creation barefoot as a kid. He's not wrong. Your feet toughen up, and you're aware of what you step on.

On the other hand, I've worn work boots since high school, and wouldn't give them up. (Literally! Uniform required penny loafers or better. I got chewed out more times...) Callused soles won't save you on sun-hot asphalt or gravel, and knowing what you're stepping on won't do you a lick of good when 120 pounds of server and handcart run over your toes.

I love being barefoot, but I don't go barefoot in public because of sharps! I don't typically encounter broken glass or used needles, but both of those things will cut right through your "thicker and tough" skin before you can feel it.

Broken glass is far more common in modern times than it was on the savanna, so it's wise to dress accordingly. You don't have to wear Dr Martens, but a millimeter or two of Vibram can dramatically improve your quality of life.

> but both of those things will cut right through your "thicker and tough" skin before you can feel it

From personal experience, it takes quite the sharps to cut through 10-12mm calluses.

> people who walk barefoot every day are not worried of stepping on tacks :)

As a manager, I wouldn't be worried about them being worried. I'd be worried about them suing the company if they injure their foot.

Get them to sign some sort of liability clause. I imagine even that wouldn't be necessary. Any judge would throw out the case immediately - you probably wouldn't even need to hire a lawyer.

Liability clauses are routinely invalidated in court.

> people who walk barefoot every day are not worried of stepping on tacks

Unless they're encumbered with a 80-pound piece of furniture that they're carrying down the stairs.

Okay, but maybe don't walk barefoot if you're moving furniture around.

I hate wearing shoes, and I'd look crazy going barefoot in my office. I compensate by wearing really light-soled vans and no socks.

Wouldn't a more apt comparison be wearing gloves?

Rigid gloves that are an inch of solid rubber, sure :P

> I wouldn't allow barefoot in the office, just because of lawsuits if someone steps on something like a tack.

As someone who walked barefoot in Chicago for much of a summer: why is this everyone's nightmare legal scenario? Sure, I could be barefoot and step on a tack, but why is that so much more of a nightmare than if I'm not looking and put my hand down on a tack on a desk? (Well, maybe because I put my hand down with less weight than my foot, but that's not the point.) There are plenty of ways to be injured in the workplace, and we are allowed to manage most of these risks ourselves; why is shoelessness so particularly terrifying?

(Incidentally, one of my favourite objections to my shoelessness was someone who claimed that it was unclean (for others, not for me). I wash my feet every day, but almost never my shoes, so which one of those results in more uncleanliness for the places that I walk through?)

>one of my favourite objections to my shoelessness was someone who claimed that it was unclean for others.

The difference might be that shoes aren't as good of a substrate for bacteria as a warm moist foot.

The athletic administration at my college required that I put my shoes back on when practicing soccer on the intramural fields. Their reasoning was that I could get a cut and develop an e coli infection.

> The difference might be that shoes aren't as good of a substrate for bacteria as a warm moist foot.

Oh, good point. I hadn't considered that.

> The athletic administration at my college required that I put my shoes back on when practicing soccer on the intramural fields. Their reasoning was that I could get a cut and develop an e coli infection.

This is also a good point, but not the issue that was being raised, which was specifically about others' health, not my own.

Why would it be unclean for others? That makes no sense.

Feet sweat, and can stain carpets and such after a while. It's the same reason one wears gloves when handling valuable things, etc.

> Why would it be unclean for others? That makes no sense.

The claim was that I was tracking in all the dirt from outside on my feet, and spreading it around where it would dirty up others. Since I'd be doing exactly the same (plus all the other dirt from years of wear) if I were wearing shoes, I agree with you that it makes no sense.

Here in Scandinavia, it's very rare to wear shoes inside. That's probably because most of the year the weather requires shoes that aren't practical inside and you want to leave your filthy wet shoes at the door and not bring the mess inside. Some people wear some kind of slippers at the office but mostly it's just socks.

I find wearing shoes for the whole day extremely uncomfortable.

But it's unlikely that you could sue anyone if you step on a tack either.

People wear socks in the office??

In NYC it's similar in winter -- people keep light flats or flip flops on their desk and trade snow boots for those during the day.

Yes, almost everyone at my office walks on socks and it's very common elsewhere too. Some guys have flip flops. It's basically everywhere indoors here, if you get invited to someone's home, you leave your shoes at the door and go with socks.

It's not the same for suit & tie jobs, they usually wear shoes. Or if there's a more formal party at someone's house.