It wasn’t a matter of ‘more haste less speed’. No, I think it was the comfort of my cozy slippers which caused me to head out to work in them. My bag slung over my left shoulder, my water bottle clutched in my right hand, off I head all dressed up with somewhere to go. Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work I go. Stunned, I come to a sudden halt. I don’t have to look at my feet, snug within my footwear. I know what is; certainly not my well-worn clogs in which I daily walk those endlessly long corridors at the hospital where I minister as a chaplain. It’s my slippers! What should a professional woman do, but turn around, go back to where those clogs patiently await my feet. Heigh ho, heigh ho, now off to work I go, all the while wondering what would have happened, had I, horror of horrors, arrived at work in my comfy slippers.
If you were to talk to some of my friends, they’d tell you about my quirky mind. While my clogs carried me quite nicely, though not as comfy as my slippers would have, I wondered what, say doctors or nurses, might say if I wore slippers to work. One of my colleagues, a palliative care doctor, might just smile and commend me for choosing to care for my tired feet. Now, a fellow chaplain might glance at my slippered feet and, concerned not only for folk’s spiritual wellbeing, might perhaps secretly envy me not only for thinking outside the proverbial box, but for walking outside the ‘shoe box’. I would most certainly steer clear of the otolaryngologist, aka the head and neck doc, for he might want to examine my head. However, my heart would go out to all the weary nurses who might longingly glance at my comfy slippers wishing they could wear slippers. So, come to think of it, why don’t I start a new sartorial trend and wear my slippers to work?
And here is the clincher which makes me ponder whether to don or not to don slippers at work. In the article, ‘Could Wearing Slippers to Work Actually Make You More Productive?’, Dr. Karen Pine, professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and fashion psychologist, told The Guardian that our sartorial selections can strongly influence our mindset. In response to this fascinating idea, a slipper company in the UK, “is encouraging people to wear their (yes, you guessed it) slippers to work, claiming it improves employees' productivity. A spokesperson for Shoegarden told The Sun that allowing their staff to wear the fluffier footwear has been “tremendously beneficial for our workplace performance.” 1
Aha, it seems my slippers know something I did not know. My slipper slip-up was not for nought. Negotiating those long hospital corridors in the comfort of my slippers, may well have a salutary effect on my overall wellbeing, and spill over into my ability to offer the best possible pastoral care to the patients entrusted to me. Would I be daring enough to wear slippers to work? To don, or not to don slippers at work, that’s the million-dollar question.
- Sr. Magdalena Vogt, CPS
1) https://www.womenshealth.com.au/could-slippers-increase-productivity-at-work