merlin wrote:Now, I've got to ask - what exactly are "Birkenstocks"? And, how do they differ (or not) from 'ordinary' sandals - I'd never heard of such things prior to this forum!
Merlin,
Birkenstocks have a website
here.
Like you I only heard of Birkenstocks fairly recently. However it was when someone at my employers parent company released a new dress code to all employees world wide before it had been discussed. Birkenstocks were specifically banned along with all similar footwear, which is probably fine for the engineering manufacturing plants in Illinois but not so good for plants in hot areas such as the Barcelona office I'm in this week.
The interesting part of the premature release was the reaction from the UK HR manager*, she promptly wrote back to head office and told them that while it may be acceptable in a backwater like Chicago to have different dress codes for men and women it was not acceptable in more advanced places where equality was considered important. I'd love to have seen the look on the Company President's face when he read that email
. In conversation with her later she told me (unprompted) that company policy may not differentiate between the genders nor even assume that there are only two genders to consider. Her comment that men could chose to wear a dress if they wanted to surprised me, but the rider that it must be "business appropriate for the job the wearer is employed to do" was clearly intended by senior management to allow them to nip anything they did not like firmly in the bud. I have not yet broached the subject of wearing an informal kilt to the office during regular hours, perhaps if the weather gets hot I may just do it and see what reaction it brings.
Have fun,
Ian.
* HR = Human Resources or personnel for those of you who like to use real words and avoid buzz phrases. Mind you, I prefer HR to the term used in one electronics company I visited a few years back; they referred to staff as "Liveware", yuk.
:shake: 
