Piers is a heel, we wear shoes to suit ourselves

I’VE had a fair few low-paid jobs in my day but being a receptionist has not been one of them. True, it looks an effortless enough sort of gig – compared to restaurant dishwasher at any rate – but I suspect the reality is somewhat different. I imagine that for every person who pitches up at the reception area, expecting nothing other than a pleasant greeting and helpful directions towards the lift, there’s an unreconstructed oaf who treats the receptionist like a personal skivvy-cum-sex symbol.

For a relative pittance in pay, receptionists must dance attendance on these obnoxious individuals – storing away their umbrellas, calling cabs for them and even keeping a wan smile fixed on their face while Mr Fantastic enjoys a spot of mild flirtation.

And that’s before we get to the matter of the outdated dress code they often must obey.

The shy and retiring Piers Morgan who rowed into the current debate about mandatory high heels for female employees has very strict ideas on how receptionists should look.

He expects a receptionist to wear high heels and make-up if they are showing visitors around an office.

Now while Piers’s view of professional women as eye candy for him and his mates may be annoying, there’s no doubt he embodies a certain breed of masculinity.

HE represents the guys who hanker for the good old days, for the Fifties Mad Men ideal of gendered workplaces, filled with sexy secretaries and powerful alpha males. The boss in PwC who sent receptionist Nicola Thorp home last year when she turned up in flat shoes, flouting the office dress code which called for heels of between two and four-inches high, has the same mindset. Apparently, he just laughed in her face when she refused to change into heels.

Nicola’s dismissal and loss of a day’s pay led to a petition of thousands of signatures begging for an end to outdated dress codes.

It also triggered two committees in the British Houses of Parliament, which have heard countless reports of women being told to go to work dressed in the style of air-hostess chic beloved of Melania Trump. Wear high heels, they were commanded by their bosses, brighter lipstick please and more revealing clothes, preferably with some of the top buttons undone on your blouse.

Clearly, it’s not just healthy profits or gleaming corporate headquarters that flag success in the world of business – it’s also armies of women dressed in a style calculated to set male hearts racing.

Donald Trump would agree.

OF course it’s not all a one-way street when it comes to high heels or indeed high glamour. Designer shoes are probably the No.1 female retail fetish, aided, no doubt, by Sex And The City’s attempt to equate them with empowerment.

For all the damage they cause to tendons and ankles, the burning pain endured while staying upright when your feet are practically vertical, women suffer on because they know that skyscraper heels make them look leggy and slim.

Feminists may see them as a symbol of female enslavement but women who smash the glass ceiling are just as fond of them as anyone. Sheryl Sandberg has been known to totter about proudly in her Christian Laboutins while the British PM Theresa May, no-one’s idea of a party girl, also has a vast shoe collection.

There’s no question that lots of receptionists would freely choose to wear war paint and heels to work. But they’d also prefer not to be dictated to on the matter and subjected to a degree of scrutiny that is not inclusive of men.

A receptionist should look well turned-out without visible tattoos, veils or outlandish jewellery or adornments. Wearing heels is neither here nor there – unless they intend hitting Piers Morgan a dig with them.