There are strong taboos about touching in the workplace, and occasions when physical contact is regarded as appropriate are few and far between. The only sort of physical contact we can observe regularly is a handshake, which is a conventional business greeting following strict unwritten rules regarding duration, degree of strength employed, and permitted degrees of moistness of skin. During a number of encounters the good manners of certain individuals are overridden by their desire to dominate* the new acquaintance, a potentially dangerous impulse which can lead to crushed knuckles.
*good manners are overridden by their desire to dominate: We have also seen this on Alioth where the conventional form of greeting (the greeter places the third set of legs behind the first set of legs of the greetee and pushes lightly) may result in the dismemberment of one or both of the creatures if one of them decides it wants to make a strong impression on its counterpart and presses a little too strongly.
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Recent Comments | 2 Total
June 2, 2008 at 4:22pm by Mark Salinas
Every individual could interpret contact, actions, looks etc. differently. Religion, gender, age could play a role in ones thought process. Some might not agree or understand why an individual is offended with various forms of contact i.e. hand on the shoulder etc. Regardless if an individual agrees with a policy or not, the policy should be followed and respected. Setting guidelines and boundaries for oneself will assist in the avoidance of offending another.
June 3, 2008 at 11:07am by Offyd Grinipuffs
You are obviously one of the enlightened Earthlings and have given this matter some thought. Most people assume that other individuals follow the same unwritten rules that they themselves take for granted, and are very offended when their rules are questioned, or even worse, broken.
In Belgium and Denmark in the last few years there has been great debate when female politicians decided not to embarrass male visitors from Moslem countries by offering them their hands to shake. They knew the men would be put in a difficult position as, if they interpreted Islam strictly, they would have to refuse to touch a member of the opposite gender, politician or not. Some people thought they were making too many concessions to the visitors - I thought they were just being polite. What do you think?