Some startups are blurring the lines between home and workplace, and adopting a “no shoes” policy. It’s pajama economics in action.
Anyone who walks into a house party can expect to see a pile of shoes by the door. Lately, anyone entering certain startup offices may encounter the same scenario.
The tendency to walk barefoot is gaining ground in tech offices, and some rising startups are asking employees to leave your Vans and Uggs at the door.
Some of these companies cover the office with soft rugsothers offer free slipperssays .
The, created by Ben Longcollaborator at Cursor, a shoe-free startup, lists more than a dozen companies that follow this approach, including several dedicated to artificial intelligencesuch as Replo and Composite.
“I’ve always worked at startups where there was a no-shoes policy in the office,” Lang posted on social media in August.
At Spur, a company that uses artificial intelligence to detect errors on websites, employees wear slippers with the company brand as soon as they arrive at the office in Manhattan, and visitors are invited to do the same, says Sneha Sivakumar, co-founder and executive director.
This policy, says Sivakumar, “makes space feels like a second home” for the ten employees and “creates a feeling of positive relaxation”.
Growing up in an Indian family in Singapore, Sivakumar remembers taking off his shoes both at home and in templesto “show respect for space”. The fact that employees do not bring dirt or mud from the street into the office “is a plus”, he adds.
Nick Blooman economist at Stanford and an expert on work culture, says this trend is, in part, “the pajama economy in actionIn other words, returning to the office after the pandemic brought with it habits acquired at home.
The phenomenon, he adds, is in line with the Silicon Valley culture 996where you work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. If you spend 12 hours in the office, you say, “It’s better to wear flip-flops theresince you won’t have time for that at home.”
Silicon Valley has always rejected strict dress codesand programmers have become accustomed to walk in socks in the hallways — but, as companies grew, some ended up stepping into their shoes.
Notion, a software startup founded in 2016, had this policy until a few years ago. , a payments giant created in 2010, maintained its policy of “optional shoes” until 2019says .
A spokesperson for , a human resources and payroll processing startup, told the NYT that switching from shoes to flip-flops “it was a tradition in the early days of the company”, which started in a house in Palo Alto, California, in 2011. Now, most prefer to keep their shoes on at work.
The office without shoes until has been portrayed in popular culture. One of the eccentricities of Don Draperprotagonist of the iconic AMC series “Mad Men”, is walk around your advertising agency in socksencouraging others to take off their shoes when entering his office.
Even so, This practice is unlikely to become the norm in North American offices, in part because, like fashion criticism Vanessa Friedmanthe feet “are one of the most controversial and least talked about parts of the body”.
“Young people have impeccable feet,” notes Friedman. “The older ones, not really.”
