August 31, 2007
Work shoes and boots
When I first got into pest control there weren’t a lot of women doing what I did. There were other women who came before me, but there were only a few in the New Orleans area. My initial training and my first route handled residential pest control with a few small businesses thrown in. Seven months later I applied for a transfer to a commercial/industrial route. My boss said “no,” the work was too heavy for a woman. That was already illegal back in 1980, but people got away with it anyway. I was tenacious and worked out a deal with the boss. I was given probationary approval to work the route for a few weeks to see if I could handle it. At 5′3″ and a hundred and ten pounds on a good day, I was a little bit of a thing, but I soon proved that my small size did not keep me from doing a good job. My biggest problem was not a chauvanistic boss or accomplishing the required tasks. It was finding the right work clothing and safety gear. By far the biggest hurdle was finding work shoes that suited my need.
My clients on that first industrial route included marine fabricators and suppliers, a gypsum manufacturing plant, a couple of oil refineries and other heavy industrial sites. Well-run industrial facilities will not allow you to enter their plants without appropriate safety gear, so I had to find pair of work boots right away. It was a maddening search and I just could not find a local supplier who was ready for that first wave of women moving into the traditionally male blue collar work force. I ended up buying a cheap pair of men’s steel-toe work boots in the smallest size I could find, and I wore them for several weeks while I waited for a more appropriate pair that I had to special-order.
Two decades later you gals in the workforce are so much better off, and so are all of the guys! MetBoots.com carries every kind of work shoe and can provide precisely what you need. Good work shoes aren’t just about meeting safety regulations. A well-fitted work shoe will keep your feet comfortable and healthy, contributing to your overall well-being. MetBoots has men’s and women’s styles for every type of work situation, in a range of styles that is simply astounding. For those of you who don’t need the heavy-duty steel-toes like I used to wear, there are work shoes, safety shoes and boots that are so stylish that you’ll be totally comfortable wearing them away from the work site, too. Actually, there are even fashionable steel-toe shoes and boots available now. The marketplace has evolved to meet the changing needs of the workforce over the years, and MetBoot is a fine example of that. Their prices are competitive, too (believe me, I know what work shoes and boots cost!) and they offer free shipping on orders over a hundred dollars. My son is not exactly faithful about reading my blog, so I’m sending him the link to MetBoots.com. He doesn’t need heavy-duty work shoes, but he’s on his feet all day dealing in a casino. He thinks the sun rises and sets on Doc Marten’s. He’s going to love the huge selection of Doc’s available at MetBoots.com.
[tags]safety shoes, work shoes, work boots[/tags]
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September 3rd, 2007 at 2:28 am, mlankton Says:
Here’s a hearty endorsement for Matterhorn boots. They’re part of Cove shoe company. I work in Corrections and am on my feet 8-16 hours a work day on mostly concrete floor. My dogs never bark because of my boots, and the pair I’m wearing is +4 years old, so they are very durable. Worth the expense.