Bizarre, Society

Are Handshakes Soon To Be Barred In The Workplace?

For lawyers and other professionals, a good firm handshakes is a practiced art. It may however soon be declared inappropriate with all other forms of physical contact according to a recent survey on business seeking to combat inappropriate touching in the workplace. A survey by TotalJobs found that three out of four people want all physical contact banned at work. Other employment experts have also discussed the possible ban on any contact of any kind to combat sexual harassment. Companies are considering a total ban on contact, including handshakes.

While I would think most people would object to the ban on handshakes, some argue that it would eliminate any confusion on what is appropriate and create a bright-line rule protecting employees from sexual harassment. There are also those who view handshakes as increasing the risk of contamination from germs. President Donald Trump notably did not shake hands for this reason until he ran for president.

We have already discussed how activists in various schools have banned clapping as threatening and marginalizing. However, a ban on handshakes would constitute a fundamental change in what is consider appropriate or preferred professional demeanor.

There are images of handshakes going back to Ancient Greece in the 5th Century. Some argue that the handshakes was meant to show a counterpart that you did not have a weapon in your hand.

There are even instructional videos on proper handshaking and psychological studies. There are dangers of the “probing handshakes” and the wet handshake. About 2.8% of the population suffers from hyperhidrosis – wet hands, excessive sweating — which can lead to the dreaded soaked-hand handshake.

Of course, movies would have to lose what is an array of handshaking approaches:

40 thoughts on “Are Handshakes Soon To Be Barred In The Workplace?”

  2. April fools? Nah, this is reality. Is this coming from the Trump crowd? No. Is it coming from the anti-Trump crowd? Yes. They want everything sanitized and plasticized. They are against nature itself.

    1. So says Tom or Estovir. Or someone else in their crowd.

      It’s a ridiculous approach. Handshakes will never go out of style. And I lean left.

  5. Be careful who you shake hands with

    I worked at a aerospace company & had a top notch rocket scientist nick named “Doogie Howser MD.”

    Doogie was way overweight & obese….About 400lbs. Had some run ins with Doogie in the men’s rooms & cafeteria. Doogie never washed his hands & always touched food items in the cafeteria. Doogie lost a critical component to a nuclear weapon being tested & that was the end of Doogie Howser MD.

  6. I live on the North Shore of Kauai, Hawaii. Hugging and even kissing function as a traditional, social, business/work and ceremonial and ritualistic behavior.
    I have also lived and worked in France, Italy, Greece and the Middle East where handshakes, hugging and kissing ( often only cheek kissing ) are also considered a conventional and traditional social, business/work and ceremonial and ritualistic behavior.
    The convention of hugging and, at least, cheek kissing seems experientially and empirically to be based societal norms.
    dennis hanna

  7. The linked article below helps explain the insanity and sorry-*ss state of the human race today.

    The author’s research concluded that “fiber-starved mice were also meaner and more difficult to handle.”

    It’s widely believed the Left, more prone to alternative lifestyle, anti-family and single-parent households, consume fast food, institutional and processed fare at an exponentially higher rate than the Right, which is more dominated by family units preferring nutritious meals at home, away from traffic, crowds, and pollution.

    In other words, if Liberals simply swore off fast food, consuming more nutritious, fibrous fare instead, it’s scientifically certain we would be blessed with a more united, friendlier country, devoid of mean militants who jam our throats with open borders, illegal voting, sanctuary cities, growth in government, inflation, and political correctness, not even mentioning abortion, a misnomer for murder.

    Life–long economic parasitism of political whores has utterly blurred their conception of the meaning of equality, having absolutely zero empathy of what working Americans are doing to keep our country afloat.

    How the Western Diet Has Derailed Our Evolution
    Burgers and fries have nearly killed our ancestral microbiome
    http://m.nautil.us/issue/30/identity/how-the-western-diet-has-derailed-our-evolution

  8. It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.

  9. Is hugging then less risky than hand shaking because clothing has fewer germs than hands?.

  10. Breaking news: Doctors urge to give up handshakes to help stop the spread of disease

    Handshakes may soon become a thing of the past, thanks to a group of doctors’ efforts to stop the spread of bacteria and viruses.

    “The handshake-free zone brings attention to the hands as vectors to disease,” Dr. Mark Sklansky, explaining that people’s hands are often covered in bacteria or viruses picked up from various surfaces. “If people knew this years ago, [handshakes] would not be part of the practice.”

    “Sleepy Joe Biden” better stop kissing & hugging children. Doctors treating children, “many whom have antibiotic-resistant germs,” could pass those germs on to even more vulnerable humans like Sleepy Joe.

  11. Your company practices this policy and your company’s best customer practices traditional behavior. Let the spark fly.

  12. The society we live in seems increasingly run by a tag team of the worst sort of elementary school teacher and the worst sort of lawyer.

  13. Don’t change dicks in the middle of a screw…
    Vote for Mao and Nixon in ’72!

  14. Ban the practice of looking at other workers in the eyes. Make them all wear Biden Hoola Hoops. You can buy those on-line. Biden is going to wear one throughout the election and then as President if he is elected. It prevents him from getting close. There are three bands which attach at his waist and go out to the hoop so as to keep him in the middle. If he gets off to the left he will lose the middle. If he goes off to the right he will have a fight. When he speaks he will rhyme with chime. When he farts he will clear the room.

  16. I think the current protocol is fine:
    Men normally shake hands with one another;
    A woman shakes another woman’s hand if offered;
    A man shakes a woman’s hand if she offers;
    A man does not offer his hand to a woman, but reciprocates if she offers.
    I don’t recall where I learned this, perhaps in the Air Force, but it’s served me fine during my career.

  17. Moving toward becoming similar to the robots as coworkers

  18. Likely the result of a generation brought up on social media. What’s next, no eye contact?

    1. It’s not the eye contact that some find inappropriate.

      Olly, over millennia we develop many of our social norms seen today and they frequently have been codified into law. Created laws from top down in rapid succession as to how people should interact can end up causing more harm than good.

  19. Having been on the receiving end of some rather painful, bone-crushing handshakes over the years, I wouldn’t mind if this ritual went away.

    I once had a client from a different culture who bowed instead of shook hands. It was a fine alternative.

      1. Barack shook hands but he bowed to leaders of Muslim nations. I always wondered about that.😀

  20. “and create a bright-line rule protecting employees” we are soon approaching a time when we will all live in a self-protecting bubble so as to not offend those too delicate to interface. Evolution used to eliminate such faulty organisms.

Comments are closed.