Stepping on toes is an idiom meaning to upset or offend someone, especially by doing something that is not their responsibility or that encroaches on their area of authority. A former colleague always mumbled to herself that she shouldn't step on people's toes, but kept on doing it. She would regularly offer to do someone else's job. After the normal one-year probationary period, she was terminated. This happened about 12 years ago. I hope she is doing well wherever she ended up.
Anyway, I rarely see that expression used literally. Today, I read that an argument about someone's shoes being stepped on aboard a rush-hour 6 train ended with a man being stabbed to death at the City Hall subway station in Lower Manhattan. I have heard of many crimes in the subway, but this has to be the stupidest. I have ridden on many crowded trains in my years of riding, but I have never stepped on anyone's toes.
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