In the professional world, there are all sorts of office rules and guidelines workers are expected to follow, but the severity of these policies tends to vary by industry.

The Range of Work Attire

Many corporate offices require male employees to dress up in a full suit and tie every day, while young start-ups are far less restrictive. If you walk into a young business – especially one run by Millennials – you’ll likely see employees wandering around in t-shirts.

Factory workers might find themselves in mandatory coveralls and steel-toe shoes, while park rangers might be lucky enough to wear jeans and sneakers most days.

Many people associate tech companies and coworking hubs with particularly lax rules, but sometimes, policies are in place for a reason.

What Happens When You Don’t Wear Shoes To Work

Recently, at a popular coworking hub outside of Washington DC, some fun-loving entrepreneurs decided to walk around the office barefoot. This barefoot look became the norm for several weeks.

On most days, their casual appearance was accepted by other in the office, but it just so happened that a few weeks in, they had a major pitch with potential investors. When the investors entered the offices in formal business attire, the start-up employees looked unprofessional and juvenile padding around in their bare feet. They quickly asked for a moment to “prepare” and sprinted to an office down the hall to do a quick change. Luckily there were others in the office who had dress shoes they could borrow for the brief meeting.

As a result of this near-disaster, however, one of the only real rules at the coworking space was put in place: Shoes are required at all times.

What type of shoes do you wear to work?

Use the comment section below to tell us if you can go barefoot, wear FiveFingers, or if you’re stuck wearing uncomfortable dress shoes on a daily basis.