The about-face came shortly after Nicola Thorp said her supervisor at a PwC outsourced reception firm ordered her to leave work after she refused to go out and buy two-to-four-inch high heel shoes, as recently reported in PHRM. “It’s not a dress up or dress down policy – all we are asking our people to do is think about what they are doing each day, who they are doing it with, and dress in a way that reflects that,” Sue Horlin, partner at PwC Australia, said. So reports The Telegraph.

Ending the dress code is not related to an online petition Thorp released and that has collected more than 141,800 signatures as of June 3, Horlin says. That petition calls for making it illegal for a UK company to demand its women employees wear high heels.

“The two are not linked but I don’t mind the timing,” Horlin says. "The zero dress code policy will help PwC attract ‘creative, innovative and diverse people that all the other companies are chasing.”