This has something to do with other stuff... but I'm just saying this

[kippurbird]

What makes the bottoms of your feet dirtier than the bottoms of your shoes?

I'm wondering this because I went up to the cafeteria today at work to ask them to make me a turkey avocado wrap with no avocado. The guys there are very nice and they'll make me one especially if I come up and ask before lunch time. There's this one woman there who I don't like because she has a tendency to be a rules stickler when everyone else isn't. She's also very patronizing and condescending. Anyway, when I went up to ask for them to make the wrap for me I didn't have my shoes on. I don't tend to wear them when I'm at work. I do wear them normally when I go to the cafeteria, but on this particular instance they were off. I stopped at the cafeteria on my way back from the mailroom.

The woman saw that I wasn't wearing shoes and immediately started to berate me. I'd made sure I didn't go into the kitchen part of the dinning hall, but apparently this wasn't good enough. I thought it was. She then cited that I was in a place where there was food.

Which made me start to wonder, as stated at the beginning, how are the bottoms of my feet any dirtier than the bottoms of my shoes? They both touch the same thing if you think about it; the ground. So what difference does it make?

Comments

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

The difference is that the Health Department will bust your ass if you let people with bare feet wander around, but not if they're wearing shoes. :P

[kevias.livejournal.com]

That's the gist of it. Business owners don't want trouble with the government over this stuff, and they don't want to get sued if people cut or hurt their feet on the premises. Of course, the "Must wear shoes" rule begs an explanation and different people will have different ideas.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

*seems to recall most of these kinds of sanitary laws date back to Typhoid Mary, whose bare feet really were more dangerous than her shoes*