Barclays’ Flip-Flop Ban a Slip(per)-Up?

Did Barclays’ new executive chairman John McFarlane meet West Bengal’s indefatigable CM Mamata Banerjee on her four-day trip to London last month, in light of the fact that employees at the bank’s headquarters have just been issued a memo banning the wearing of flip-flops? While all organisations should be concerned about employee productivity and motivation — in the achievement of which comfort plays a major role — West Bengal may not be the best advertisement for the efficacy of unbounded footwear. But there is no denying Ms Banerjee’s energy, as her daily 7-km fast-paced morning walks around London — in her trademark white saree and flip-flops — amply demonstrated. Barclays’ employees could probably do with a bit of Didigiri, though the British public at large may not be primed for it just yet.

Those segments of British industry that dismiss rubber chappals as mere beachwear undeserving of space in work areas, should be brought to India to see the sheer diversity of activity carried out by multitudes clad in that very genre of plastic footwear. Freeing the toes from the tyranny of stitched leather could be just what the British economy needs. Had the feisty chief minister known of the Barclays’ chief ’s disdain for her favourite footwear, maybe she would have given him a dressing down.