Representative Photo (Image via Puma)
Some startups in America are embracing a “no shoes” policy. According to a report in the New York Times, “The “no shoes” trend is spreading in tech offices, with buzzy start-ups telling employees to leave their Vans and Uggs at the door.” The list of such startups includes Cursor, Replo and Composite. Ben Lang, an employee at Cursor, wrote in a social media post, “I’ve only worked at startups that have a no-shoes in office policy.” Sneha Sivakumar, a co-founder and the chief executive of Spur, told New York Times that the no-shoes policy “makes it feel like a second home” for her 10 employees and “disarms you in a positive way.” Spur uses AI to check websites for bugs.The report quotes Nick Bloom, a Stanford economist who studies work culture, saying that the shoes-off trend was partly “the pajama economy in action.” According to Bloom, now that people who worked from home during the pandemic are back in the office, they are bringing their home habits with them.
‘996’: Hustle culture trend taking hold in Silicon Valley
Analysts are also linking the phenomenon with Silicon Valley’s 996 culture. The 996 number combo refers to a work schedule — 9 a.m.to 9 p.m., six days a week — that has its origins in China’s hard-charging tech scene. Though analysts say that the term is relatively new in Silicon Valley, 996 is a “high-octane version of something that has been around in the tech industry for a while,” said Margaret O’Mara, a historian at the University of Washington as per an NY Times report.She added that after a few turbulent years of layoffs, the tech industry has tightened things up.Elon Musk’s self-proclaimed “extremely hard core” approach is no longer out of step with the rest of the industry. Silicon Valley’s “hard tech” era is here, and working crazy hours (or at least talking about working crazy hours) is part of the new norm.
Why ‘shoe-less’ trend may not go mainstream
Still, the practice is unlikely to become the go-to in American offices. As the New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman has written, feet “are among the most controversial, least discussed parts of the body.” Another reason the trend may struggle to catch on in more age-diverse workplaces is because as per Friedman, “Young people have great feet,” he reflected. “Old people don’t.”
